[Haesslich]

I think your expectations were too high, especially given this was from an ebook company - it's a reader first and foremost, just like how the Kindle Fire will be a media consumption portal for Amazon's music, video, and book services more than it'll be a basic tablet.

You want a cheap tablet for $200? The Coby Kyrios is about that price, and Viewsonic is looking at the $250 mark for their next tablet. The feature set here is focused around reading, with the ability to install other apps. Most tablets don't let you remove pre-installed apps either without rooting, nor do the basic Vanilla Android installs, so I'm not too surprised by it here.

In your shoes, I'd take this back and reconsider my plans. You won't get the features you want for anything below $300 (and even then you give up device configuration control), although installing an alternative launcher like Go Launcher EX world let you hide the icons, if not remove the apps. You can get it through GetJar too.