palpatine:
All I can add to WA is that not one of your problems IS a problem, and to a great extent they are actually advantages - not features that would put off "professional installers" for whom it is not intended anyway, but features that would and in almost all cases do attract to it ordinary users, for whom it is designed.
However, to go through your points:
Devices is a store of all the available commands; it is for reference, not for use, and the contents therefore do not need to be deleted, nor should they be.
You don't even say what the problem is about copying over your set-up to another Harmony. The process is actually simplicity itself.
What ARE "nested wizards"? If you mean separate pages three or four of them actually make things easier - but maybe that's not what you mean.
There are vast numbers of all of very many types of devices. The Harmony database carries a very wide range of them, but if some are missing, or not complete, that is far from being a major criticism, and such deficiencies can almost always and freely be dealt with by Logitech support.
Maybe clicking an extra and redundant button IS a major drawback, but many other users - without the superior knowledge of computer operation with which you and I are bestowed
- no doubt find that again the feature is a helpful advantage. Logi can't be expected to provide different methods to cater for different levels of computer training.
Based on my experience, and on that of many others who have reported here and elsewhere their own success, I have to say that ease of "programming" is actually a strong feature of Harmonys; and to suggest that your contrasting frustration is likely to have been of your own making.
H H
If I get this right, my fellow users are actively defending the current software?
I guess you were the same folks campaigning to have the microsoft office paperclip compulsory and not allow it to be disabled, and furthermore to insist that it remains connected to the internet to make sure it keeps up to date with all those "looks like you're writing..." document types that you'll never use...
Of course, the cynic in me suggests that the last two replies were from planted logitech employees 
Honestly, is it really so advanced to want to delete multiple buttons at the same time, or to remove an empty slot or entire page and have all the following definitions "slide up" to fill the gap (seriously, millions of non-advanced users do this kind of thing in spreadsheets daily)
So why can't we have a way to edit the entire configuration in spreadsheet format? A pure text format would be better still, then the definition of the format could be published and a whole market would emerge for open source tools, people could exchange snippets and sub-definitions via forums. Don't underestimate the market for sales driven by word of mouth in the open-source community, just look at the popularity of jailbroken iPhones!
or are these truly advanced needs, only suitable for those of programmer level experience?
I'll modify your statement: Many users, including myself, find minor irritations in the software, but they don't prevent us in any way from achieving the functionality that we require of our remotes; whereas many others find the simple format of answering a few simple questions an improvement on most computer programs and set up their remotes effortlessly within a few minutes.
Again, there is no point in deleting commands in devices, so there is no point in changing the way of doing it.
And also again, Logi are unlikely to see any advantage in providing different forms of the set-up procedure to suit different levels of computer proficiency -and interest. For most users the form you want would be misleading, to put it mildly.
Harmony remotes do not have "truly advanced needs" - they're for switching devices on and off, and up and down, not for controlling nuclear reactors.
Of course there are other brands - at five times the price - that might do both. 
WA didn't say "updating things" - he said "use device mode" - quite a different matter.
"Hidden"? Deep"?
Assigning devices to Activities means setting up Activities - the front page has the option "Add Activity".
Reassigning the function of buttons means Customising them - again a button on the front page.
As before, you don't need to do anything with the 17 pages. Just leave them there and ignore them.
If you mean you grouped the commands in Devices then it might take time, but again - if that really is what you mean
- that was totally unnecessary. The only place where they might need to be grouped is in Activities and you don't have 17 pages there, do you?
WA says the faults are minor; I say they are no more than irritations.
I agree that select-delete would be a useful function, but, because it is so very rarely needed, I'd class the lack of it very low on the irritation scale.
27 IS a lot more inputs than I've come across before, but was it really such a hardship to select the one you wanted, once for each Activity you have?
