They don t detract from the freedom to organize our lives as we wish, but simply offer another means of viewing files to the list and icon views that we are accustomed to when viewing folder and volume contents. If the classic arrangement works for you, go for it. The challenge of making a sleek and elegant OS is precisely the same difficulty faced with making the hardware sleek and elegant. Users become accustomed to complexity and options, equating choice with power. Yet, there is also power in limits and power in simplicity.
Limiting choice can focus the user and make one more efficient.
For instance, if you have a multiplicity of different ways to access a particular file, you are faced with going through a decision loop each time that you wish to find a file. In OS X, you can use just the file viewer to access any file anywhere. It sounds pretty sleek to me. Like it or not, simplicity seems to be the overarching mantra at Apple. The joy of X is that a whole world of complexity is just a command line away.