In general, I agree with most of what you said. I primarily only take
issue with the idea that one should never switch to root as a matter
of concrete fact. I'm not an expert, and that is merely my opinion.
But what I've seen occasionally is those insisting that root must
never be used, and even seen some belittling new-comers for doing so
or inquiring about it. My own preference and view is that choice and
freedom is important in the unix/linux world and that it fosters
development and progress. When it comes to root access, I've always
thought that the best option is to educate new users about the reasons
for the setup Ubuntu uses and make sure they are aware of the
potential harm and destruction they could cause if they so decide to
hang around as root. Why? I've known a few people in my life that
when you tell them "no", they suddenly no longer care about the
reasons and will do it any way just because they were told "no". :)
Not that I'm one of those ... :)

Of course, I'm in no way suggesting the responses in this thread were
contrary to a good discussion that is informative and educational to a
new user (or even seasoned ones). I think it was good. A few other
comments below: