I like most of Apple's products, but iTunes is a very dark corner of the Mac universe.
For example, here is what you have to do to download updates to your iPhone apps:
- Click the Applications link in the upper-left corner of the navigation pane.
- Move the mouse over to the lower-right corner and click the tiny, tiny Check for updates button.
- Move the mouse to the upper-right corner and click the Download All Free Updates button.
Three steps, requiring moving the mouse pointer all the way across the screen between each. There is no automatic-update feature.
There is probably some way to write an AppleScript to automate this, but AppleScript sucks too.
Do a web search for "iTunes sucks", and you'll find a lot more examples.
To paraphrase Bjarne Stroustrup: There is software everyone complains about, and software nobody uses. One could chalk up the iTunes hate to the simple fact that so many people are forced to use it whether they like it or not. But iTunes really does suck. I wish Apple would do a complete re-design of its UI, and make it act like an Apple product.