I see it pretty simple now.
For years, we've asked for some sort of Wordpress like feature, drag and drop, auto update within acp, plugins within acp. We now have it and realise we don't like it much after being used to IP.Board/IPB/IPS for years. But, we're now stuck with it.
If you want addons without being tied to ACP, then ask the developer for the files, so you can keep a copy. This is what IPS suggest doing, and they have no intension of taking that feature away from us.
Happy New Year by the way!!