@Kovid - I understand your concerns about extending the startup wizard but clearly there is no solution to keep everyone happy - either questions that one set of people click past, or no questions that a different set of people later spend hours scratching their heads over
The reason I suggested putting on that wizard (other than it already exists) was because if the user does not decide on author sort up front before they add their first book, their library gets in a crappy mess that is just awful to fix. Manage Author Sorts, recalculates, tweaks - ugh. I wouldn't have thought two questions asking how you want your titles and authors displayed in a program that is about managing books was a big issue but maybe my grandma has a high pain threshold
As for plugboards, as another option I am throwing out there - is there any harm in perhaps creating a default plugboard once the user selects a device in that startup wizard? Just a basic "series - title" one? So maybe the user doesn't get prompted at all? I don't know enough about plugboards and other devices to know what harm it would cause? I only know about Kindles and for them it is a must have.