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It just pisses me off when I can't have them on my home computer, ipod and work computer without going through some backdoor (not that it's that complicated).

It pisses me off like a windows mobile device that MS activesync used to not synchronize with more than one computer. Just Stupid. People have more than one computer and one device.



What you're describing are some of the nuances of maintaining sync between multiple devices and their contents. The sync software has to make tradeoffs, and has several constraints on how it can and needs to operate.

Consider the following possible scenarios that iTunes (and other sync software) needs to deal with :

- your music collection is in iTunes, and is larger than the size of your iPod

- your music collection is in iTunes, and your family owns multiple iPods that need to be synced with the same computer

- your music collection is in iTunes, and you want to sync with your home desktop, work laptop, and a friend's machine

iTunes actually has methods of coping with most of the above scenarios (#3 gets tricky). Now consider imposing additional limitations and tricks on the devices because of rights-holders demands...

It sounds like you have a grasp on some of the nuances of this crap from past products and attempts. In Apple's case, I think the rise of the Music / App Store (and the tracking and deployment of apps and songs purchased) and the recent iPods and iPhones being full-fledged computers (rather than just embedded systems with accessible storage) has led Apple to close off direct access to the filesystem for the average user.