It's still a bewildering oversight that, or something just like it, is the only way you can link with a device.

If you stuff your phone with photos, you can't delete them by connecting them to a computer and sorting through them on that. You have to use a utility to import them either straight onto the computer, or delete them separately on the phone. Even if you use a Mac instead of a PC, you basically need to work with an iTunes-like interface.

Especially with the focus on trying to make the iPad a computer. You're still largely relegated to the iTunes-type interface, unless you sidestep it with a cloud service, or Airdrop.