Why does everybody's "easy" application need a Settings page that includes 40 toggles?

Insight gained over a week of note-taking app exploration. All of them claim themselves to be minimal in their landing pages. None of them has a settings page that does not require at least ten minutes of my time to understand.

I assume this is done because the settings page provides an escape route for the developer from a decision. One client wants feature A, the other wants feature B, and one check mark makes them both stop complaining. Looks like a good solution. Actually, it's only passing the buck.

Both of the apps that I managed to keep have very few settings and have made decisions which I did not agree with on first use, but got used to them in a day.

Though, I wonder if this works long-term. At some point, you get real users with conflicting workflows and "you have no choice" stops being nice.

To those who have already gone this way: when did you start implementing toggles, and did you make any decisions that you regret now?