I agree that this is a real pain for Apple customers. But also realize that Apple is trying to avoid incurring the costs of shipping out a box, having a tech look at it, and shipping it back--when the issue was a software problem all along (like resetting PMU). Remember that the vast majority of end-users' problems are software-related. Because the warranty lasts longer than the phone support, Apple forces even warrantied customers to spend money in order to "definitively" rule out software. That way more of the money they spend on warranty repairs actually goes to fixing or replacing hardware.

Of course the easy way for Apple to simplify this would be to give their customers 1 year of phone support and warranty. I would think the added customer satisfaction would, in the long run, cancel out much of the added call center expense, but that's just my guess.

If you want to avoid this mess, the best thing to do is go to a Genius Bar and speak to someone in person. If you make the immediate impression that you: a) are a nice person; b) know what you're doing, and; c) have already ruled out a software problem, they're more likely to cut through some of the red tape for you.