except default aren't anywhere close to sensible, which is the whole point really

The defaults on my installation are *.debian.pool.ntp.org. Can you give me an example of an installation with less sensible defaults?

edit: Ah, I think I now know where the misunderstanding lies. My "if you don't" refers to "if you don't build it from source", not to "if you don't ./configure it".

Why would this stuff be baked into the binary for the software?