Before someone mentions jailbreaking, I'd just like to say that jailbreaking is not a suitable solution. There should be an official supported way to obtain advanced access to your device.
This seems like an awfully arbitrary statement. Why should there be an official way to get access to the filesystem?
I'm aware of all the arguments for their completely closed eco-system. But OSX itself is also a perfect example to counter them. Fundamentally, portable touch screen devices are still computers and are not actually so different that such a closed environment is needed.
A natural extension of this is a Mac that runs iOS, or making OSX more like iOS. I think this is happening, and it's being driven by what most people want.
It may not be what I personally want, but fortunately there is more than one choice these days.
Also, I completely disagree that iOSs success is due to it being closed. As the current OSX environment shows, it is completely possible to have both an App Store yet not discard your professional customers. I can tell my mother to only use the App Store and she is perfectly happy.
Apple is removing control for a single reason only: money. They want their 30% of every sale on their devices. This is a good reason for them, but a bad reason for their customers.
For starters, they don't understand what a file is, they don't understand what a folder+directory is, they don't understand what metadata is, and they've never had to know what we understand as a filesystem for the last five years in order to use their phone effectively.
You and I could figure out anything Apple offered instantly, and it wouldn't be difficult for them to program at all. But for the 95% of people who conceptually couldn't grasp what it's offering, it's another mysterious button on the screen that is taking them to a place they don't get. It adds to the cognitive load of the experience, adds to the UI, and makes them feel less 'with it' when their son or daughter tries to show them how to use the paperclip to attach multiple photos. They struggle with cut and paste, they struggle with how to search in Safari mobile (YES), they struggle with settings, and even things like multiple email accounts can get unmanageably complicated for them.
Even if the filesystem implementation was utterly neutered and bumpered, it is still fundamentally not making iOS a better product for the great majority of those who would use it. I would strangle for a real filesystem, believe me, but Apple and the market have spoken on this.
-- http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
The feeling that the top end was being crippled for the benefit of the unwashed masses was always my complaint about apple in the last few years. (Tongue in cheek).