Dave McComb's article The Data-Centric Revolution: Data-Centric vs. Application-Centric points out problem that causes software to be 10 times and even 100 times more complicated than it really needs to be.
When XBRL International first got going, there were discussions about making sure people's thinking was "data centric" instead of "document centric". What Dave McComb is pointing out is the same sort of issue except being "application centric" instead of "data centric".
All of this is explained in more detail here by Alan Morrison.
What if you completely removed all applications, focused on the information, and then rebuilt systems to interact with the information from the information's perspective rather than the application perspective? That is what I do here with this effective automation of the record to report process.
What if you used this approach as "modern accounting" is built out? Billions of dollars could be saved.
Google seems to get this perhaps. Google appears to be trying to be the "operating system for personal finance". They could give Intuit a run for their money. Personal and micro organization accounting could be the first to be reorganized to be data centric as opposed to application centric.