[zebracanevra]

The OP is saying most of these plugins should be built in.

Using your analogy, WordPress should be a furnished apartment, not one where you have to buy all the white goods yourself. (if renting)

[sdflhasjd]

I think the question this raises is: Is Wordpress an application or a framework? Because what it's like at the moment is a half-furnished apartment where it doesn't come with a kitchen sink, but does have a bed for some reason.

If it's an application, a lot of what people need doesn't come in the box.

If it's a framework, a lot of what's built in isn't necessary and it doesn't let users pick what flavour of wordpress they want.

[CM30]

That's a fair criticism. WordPress definitely lacks a lot of seemingly basic features, like a contact form, a decent user management system, etc.

I guess if there's one thing that might be attracting people to hosted solutions, it's that many of them do provide these sorts of features built in.