I think I've figured out where our differences lie. The "all settings in one place" camp come from the fruit or the search engine company background and want a phone that looks and behaves like one produced by those companies, but happens to run Linux.

I want a mobile Linux computer in my pocket that looks and behaves like a desktop Linux computer that just by the way also happens to make calls. I see absolutely no harm in having two, three or twenty email clients, all with their own set of account settings. I see absolutely no point in having all settings in one place. It breaks everything I believe a computer should stand for.