I totally understand the argument, but there is a catch: Sometimes the error message is not there to help the person using an application, but to let them pass it on to someone from a technical support.<p>I often try to educate users: If you come to me with a problem and there is an error message <i>please</i> give me the error message. Make a screenshot, make a picture and mail it to me, write it down. Unfortunately I still have a hard time convincing people that this makes sense.