The point is, they spend less time overall by thinking about it first, than they would spend by poking at all the options the program provides, hoping one of them will be close enough.
Of course, you can't spend all your time thinking about the distracting minutia of every-day life (hand-encoding assembly instructions to program the microwave oven, or change the channel on the TV), but if you're actually trying to get something done, an interface that gives you a broad array of tools with complicated interactions can be better than a simple tool. Compare Vim vs. Notepad, or Photoshop vs. Paint.
Isn't "poking at all the options the program provides, hoping one of them will be close enough" the way one actually learns to use a program? At least I personally learn everything this way.
Internalizing interaction is better when you want users to make a thoughtful, creative contribution to your community (or use tools which will, basically coding, CAD'ing, crafting; i.e. Threadless, Newgrounds, Etsy).
Externalizing interaction is better when you want to provide a mental framework to drive behavior (e.g. most viral hooks or premium upsells; i.e. Farmville, Facebook, App Store).
Can someone explain how this is a good thing?