Problem is, if you sidestep the defaults, specifically with software you’re implementing, you also sidestep any (sometimes painstaking and meticulous) work that goes into making said software accessible and useful. It depends on the project, of course, but (to address Gruber’s remarks in that post) a lot of work goes into making Wordpress simple to use out-of-the-box. It’s also extremely customizable (though I can’t compare it to Movable Type), so the sky’s the limit.
Me? I like defaults. Every so often, I try to reconsider which defaults I can comfortably use, or at least understand why they’re around. Sometimes, it can even be refreshing to clear your settings and start from scratch. My goal is a low-maintenance experience, which doesn’t always take as much work as people think.
