RE: C-d deleting region considered harmful

[Drew Adams]

> > All new users will NOT have to suffer forever.  In fact, NO 
> > new users will have to suffer forever.  New users, like old
> > users, can discover options and change their settings if they like.
> 
> If new users sees a tool behaving strangely, they say "how odd", and
> then go on to the next tool.

Some yes, but not all.  You said "all new users".

Following that logic, ALL of the Emacs default UI should be exactly what all new
users expect - nothing more.  (Let's ignore here the fact that new users do not
_all_ expect the same things.)  We should then make no attempt to move newbies
in what we think is a better direction.

That has not been the approach for designing Emacs (although some periodically
do argue for such a knee-jerk recipe).  Instead, each feature and its options
are examined from various aspects and a judgment is made as to whether and how
much to risk surprising newbies but also guide them toward something better.

IOW, the devil is in the details: each potential default behavior is discussed
on its merits, including its effect on newbies.  There is no hard-and-fast rule
that everything must reflect what most (not to mention all) newbies are already
used to.  Not surprising newbies is only one consideration, albeit an important
one.