Hi Jez,
That's the keyword, pervasiveness! All are, it is just a matter of degree. Given the fact, that they will absolutely never take users into consideration, one has to be creative and find ways to solve or work around each and every of their so-called features. I just had to do it regarding the Outlook Messaging feature. It seems my account had escaped being updated because since yesterday I suddenly got a Messaging section which was, evidently, undisableable (sp?) from within Outlook. Well, after some searching, it's not gone, but at least it's blocked.
Some time ago I went through great lengths to completely remove a skype contact:
It seemed to work at first. It actually didn't. Why can't one remove, once and for all, old contacts? Just because they arbitrarily decided users shouldn't have that option. Yes, pervasiveness.