[Trippynet]

If you don't like restrictions, just leave root without a password. If you run most tools like Software Manager, it'll spot the lack of a root password and will give you root privileges by default when you launch it. And if you're in a command prompt, a quick "su" will switch you to root with no hassle. That's what I do, and a normal account is really not a hindrance to use at all.

As you say, not secure at all, but this is a single user machine that's used at home and is otherwise pretty isolated.