content: Sure, forced connections with social media are awful, especially if you don't use or want to use Facebook. But creating an account is useful for you, too. Making users 'buy-in' to the app (good term, I was searching for something like that the whole time when writing the article) is a way to show them the value of the app before making them jump through hoops, like Flipboard for Android does. Wouldn't you rather make sure the app was going to be good for you before you gave them your email address?