Why is the iTunes syncing process so horrid, buggy, and non-intuitive?

Question

It's amazing that a company which can make some pretty phenomenal devices like the iphone or ipad has an excruciatingly painful way to sync to your computer.  Why does it seem like any time I attempt a sync, half of my things get deleted incorrectly, or duplicates end up in both places? 
For example, tonight I was in front of my computer, watching something I had purchased off of iTunes and downloadd to my iPad.  So I had to have iTunes connected to my iPad.  While I was doing this, I was downloading the episodes for the rest of the season for that specific TV series directly onto my iPad, with the intention of watching a few episodes while I'm lying in bed.   What does it do?  It downloads everything to my iPad, transfers to my iTunes computer, and deletes everything from my ipad - all without my consent or knowledge. 
It's gotten to the point where I'm scared to ever connect my devices to the iTunes on my computer, because something ALWAYS goes wrong during the sync, and I spend 30 mins - 1 hr fixing it
Apple - PLEASE give the same thought towards usability, user interface, and intuitiveness to your iTunes software that you do to your other products.  It's more along the lines of crappy buggy bloatware at this point

Answer 1

Weird, I have never experienced any issues with syncing because it IS intuitive.  Simply a matter of reading and understanding the options in iTunes.
If you want the content on the device, then tell iTunes to sync the content to the device.  With the device connected, select the appropriate media tab and tell iTunes how to sync that type of media.
Not syncing is risky... what would happen if the device failed, was lost, or stolen?  Then all your content is gone with the device.