Why do you consider "turning off push e-mail" and "not keeping 3G on when you're in patchy coverage" sensible? Push email shouldn't be much more expensive in terms of battery life than SMS. The phone should know enough about what you need to turn 3G on or off automatically.
Absolutely agree. The idea that the user is responsible for diddling around with complicated settings in order to get an essential feature* to work flies directly in the face of the way Apple products are supposed to work. I don't have one: is it really that bad? That's a showstopper for a huge number of users if true.
* And yeah, I'd put "24+ hours of battery life" way up there on the list of essential features for any device that goes in a pocket.
