Existing apps that have been authorized will need to be reauthorized to get any new permissions, so you need not worry about previous apps suddenly doing something that you previously did not agree to.
I'll let the guys who maintain that page know about your comments about the UI. I suspect the one-app-at-a-time design is a combination of:
a) simplicity of implementation due to less code and reuse of components,
b) simplicity of use in the common case (just removing a single app),
c) not expecting people to selectively want to delete a whole bunch of apps (although there is a single "disable all" link),
d) that the platform team wants to collect ratings on the applications when you remove them to reduce distribution of apps that people don't like (and to take corrective action on apps that get bad reviews).
People who see posts on their profile page and find them irritating can easily hide them, and an immediate option is to remove that application. Each post is attributed to the application that made them. I'd say a level of web savviness is required, but not "technical" ability.
> so you need not worry about previous apps suddenly doing something that you previously did not agree to.
Except that pretty much every single app requested permission to post as you, even though almost none of them actually did. I don't know if this was because they wanted to leave themselves open to add extra features, or if there were obscure features that posted as you, but everything from bumper sticker apps to WSJ apps had the permission to post as you. In very close to none of these apps did they actually post without you taking a specific action and answering a prompt saying that yes, you really do want a post. I absolutely do not want any app to be able to post as me under any circumstance, and I have apparently had dozens of apps with this permission so far without me even realizing.
Because there is (apparently) no permission "allow them to post after prompting me", "allow this app to post as me" is the defacto choice for the former. If I authorized netflix to post as me in 2007, and it 4 years pass without it posting as me, then it suddenly starts posting as me in 2011 without me taking any additional action that is a serious problem, and that is the situation as I understand it right now.
From what I understand, this is an entirely new permission and is part of the new "Add to Timeline" system. I don't work on that part of Facebook myself, but this is how it was described in the F8 introduction to the system.
I'll let the guys who maintain that page know about your comments about the UI. I suspect the one-app-at-a-time design is a combination of:
a) simplicity of implementation due to less code and reuse of components,
b) simplicity of use in the common case (just removing a single app),
c) not expecting people to selectively want to delete a whole bunch of apps (although there is a single "disable all" link),
d) that the platform team wants to collect ratings on the applications when you remove them to reduce distribution of apps that people don't like (and to take corrective action on apps that get bad reviews).
People who see posts on their profile page and find them irritating can easily hide them, and an immediate option is to remove that application. Each post is attributed to the application that made them. I'd say a level of web savviness is required, but not "technical" ability.