For iPhone users, all app notifications can be changed, except sadly for the App Store. For me, the only pesky red badge that remains on my screen is that of the App Store. And the fact that a few of my apps need to be updated is something I don't want to be notified about.
Personally, I think the pendulum will eventually swing back as users get tired and frustrated with all these services vying for their attention.
This is one of the biggest differences I'm finding going from iOS to Android -- Apple slipped in the "enable notifications" the first time you run an app and I never thought twice about it.. like a lot of things I've used.
On the whole though I'm finding Android to be an interesting environment where I can hopefully get more things running how I would like.
Personally, I think the pendulum will eventually swing back as users get tired and frustrated with all these services vying for their attention.