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I'm not sure why design philosophy got so many people riled up, but here's my two cents.
I think most would agree that epubs would (and do) look better without any tacked on pages. That still means little, especially when one factors in other potential applications. While I dislike the system, the look and feel of the ADE tacked on numbers, I still get out of my way to use them, because page numbering on electronic media is a problem whenever you want to cite something. Citing by book and chapter is simply sloppy scholarship, and will be received with heightened scrutiny. ADE numbering is the only thing approaching a standard that someone might reasonably have access to, and know how to use. You cannot refer anyone to your bookmark or annotation. One could say that ebooks are limited and should not be used for that purpose - tell that to academic publishers.
Some standards need to exist - as they do in the printing world, especially if one wants the practice to evolve. Paper books come in a wide range of formats, type layouts, footnotes, endnotes and many, many other things. Some of them we personally might not like (ever have to read small-print?), but we still buy the book and read it for the content. I see no benefit to freewheeling anarchy and not standardising some non-intrusive ebook elements for the sake of total personal freedom. With that attitude ebooks won't develop at all. I see no reason for not having options like page numbers even if some people find them superfluous and don't use them. After all, a great number of people simply do not read, but that does not mean that books are merely a decrepit analogue format, doesn't it?
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