The private capability creates a lot of complexity for Facebook. While it's true that more granular communication controls creates a more useful tool, it does not mean the people can use the tool. For instance, right now I have Friend Requests from relatives a generation older than me. As someone who started using Facebook in college, I don't know whether to accept and start creating limited profiles or to just ignore them. I'm not interested in creating work for myself. Plus, what's the point of connecting if you're just going to hide everything? This privacy granularity is a problem Facebook really needs to figure out.
Being completely open from the get-go is part of the beauty of Twitter. They should definitely add some more features, but the shear simplicity is quite nice.
While I agree that their current privacy settings create complexity and "work," the solution to this problem is to refine the interface so that making privacy decisions is easier and more intuitive. This can maybe be done with the help of AI/NLP/image recognition ("It looks like you're smoking pot in this picture! Want Facebook to automatically make it private?"), or maybe they just need to explore some new UI design options. Regardless, the solution is not to get rid of the option altogether - the complexity exists because human relationships are complex and require complex systems to represent the nuances of interpersonal communication.
It's like comparing the controls of a RC airplane to the cockpit of a 747: of course a jet has a ridiculously complex control system, it's a complex machine that's getting a lot of shit done at once. Any control you remove from a jet plane would certainly make it more "user-friendly," but it also becomes a less useful tool than it was before.
> what's the point of connecting if you're just going to hide everything?
Counterpoint: Where's the depth in your relationships if you cannot choose what pieces of information you share with whom?
Facebook's (stated?) goal is to represent real world human relationships and connections online in some way. That is complex and messy as humans are complex and messy. Facebook should not get rid of its myriad of privacy options as it's already built-in and necessary for way Facebook took off and grew (the whole point of Facebook was that it was private for college kids). It does certainly face very difficult UI and user training challenges that need to be solved sooner rather than later, if it can be solved at all.
Twitter took another POV and just threw the complexity out. Definitely hippie ("can't we all just get along") and definitely simpler and easier from a UI and back-end perspective. Not as useful, but you know what you're going to get.
Being completely open from the get-go is part of the beauty of Twitter. They should definitely add some more features, but the shear simplicity is quite nice.