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Ratinox,
You've made a very good point. It is hard to disagree with breaking the KISS philosophy. But I think that I can. So bear with me.
Kindle followed that philosophy to a fault in their early generation models. They had a very simple, uniform interface. Don't get me wrong, I find it more pleasurable to read on those older models for that reason. Showing a progress bar and percentage was all I needed. Having font size choices was all I needed. Listing the books on the device was again all I really needed.
But a curious thing happened. People repeatedly started talking about how great Kobo was for providing more options like boldness, justification, progress etc. etc., and Kindle started adding these extra features to appease different groups of readers. You can argue that it compromised the UI. But honestly for most people it is set it and forget it.
The more complex UI doesn't deter from the reading experience because nearly all of the time the settings are hidden from view. It does not detract from reading.
And this is how I disagree with you. I don't think that necessarily keeping a UI simple is what good design philosophy should be. It is that the UI should not get in the way or be overly cumbersome or confusing. It is a subtle but important difference. Adding an extra option for page numbers doesn't detract from the reading experience. It doesn't create confusion. It doesn't make the UI cumbersome.
Simplicity of design should be interpreted as an aesthetic and not a dumbing down or reduction in necessary, enriching features.
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