Why, pray tell? But, good to know

Some people want to put the disc in and let it load, then go get a drink or something and come back to the menu, so the movie can be started when ready.

Although, I think it was more disliked in the early days, when the lossless audio tracks (when they were using PCM, for instance) were not the default track. So you had to go to the menu or press the audio button to switch to it. Nowadays, generally they use DTS-HD MA or TrueHD, so the appropriate track is automatically selected based on the equipment.

I have a Japanese laserdisc of "101 Dalmatians" that has previews before and after the movie. I heard the laserdisc of "Independence Day" included the teaser for "Volcano" which was about to come out in theaters, that was a rare thing I haven't heard of on any other US laserdisc.

Menus have always annoyed me since the advent of DVD. The most useless ones are on movies that have only one audio track and no subtitles and no extras, yet they still have a stupid menu that makes you hit "Play Movie" to start the damn movie!

The most annoying thing on Blu-Rays is the loading screens, which some discs have even if they don't do anything super-fancy to need it. I've noticed Disney's been trying to cut down on this, for example Tron only goes through a loading process if you go to the extra (a photo gallery with music) that actually needs it. The last Disney Blu-Ray I saw that started with previews also let you bring up a pop-up menu to start the movie too, which also spares you from going through a fancy main menu.

Well, if I had been offered a menu once the disc initialized, I'd be OK with that. Instead, it launched straight into a song and dance about how hot blu ray is and how it will change your life, followed by several trailers. Nothing I could do with my player's remote would interrupt that. Unbelievably annoying.