Leaning towards the careful end of the spectrum, I can respect that. Especially once you're fast with UIKit, and Auto Layout. And Auto Layout kinda proves your last point; there's absolutely nothing "auto" about it.
It took me a couple of years to figure out how to use it properly.
Like I said, we're on the right track, and I doubt that Apple will let this fall by the wayside. I think they were planning this at about the same time that they started dreaming up Swift.