I have always found the fact that Windows app installers routinely do this to be one of the irritating things about that platform. Apps should know their place: it's my machine, not theirs, and they should not presume to tell me how I should organize it.
It's interesting that Android is rediscovering the same lessons Windows learned. As Windows progressed, they exposed less things via API, realising that the user wants control of their experience. For instance, pinning items to the taskbar.
Devs call MS and whine "how can I make my installer pin the app to the taskbar" and the answer is "that's the user's space, so you're not allowed". Of course, without a sandbox or approved environment, applications can reverse engineer the system somehow. And if MS adds a mandatory sandbox/approval (WinRT) then it's "but it's not an open or fair platform; my machine is locked down; freedom etc.".
Sure, you might say "but I want" this app to violate the sandbox. But if that's remotely easy to accomplish, then all apps just request you to violate the sandbox (just like the tons of sites that used to have "click yes to install the ActiveX control when the scary warning pops up").
The converse is that I really wish there were an app for managing the Start screen in Windows 8 because having to right click a million icons etc. by hand really sucks.
