Why are there so many knobs in GarageBand?
theoutline.com
theoutline.com
It's kinda hard to take design suggestions from someone who refuses to learn the basic tools and techniques of a specific domain. Yes, there is some insight to be leveraged from articulating the confusion and perplexity of the user encountering am unfriendly interface, but the skill inheres in being able to manipulate and combine the basic characteristics of acoustic waveforms in predictable ways.
Other interfaces exist, but the reason that most plugins have so many knobs is that musicians want a high degree of parametric access so as to produce distinctive sounds. Sure, you can make very simple plugins that sound great and apply a complex process with the adjustment of just one or two parameters...but those tools are easy to recognize to the point of being either basic or faddish.