There is a "Manually manage music" checkbox for iPods, which lets you drag and drop stuff mostly like any other device. If you hate syncing so much, why haven't you just checked that?
Syncing works for me, and probably does for most other people out there as well. In most cases, it's pretty good at putting the latest and greatest on my device without me having to do much except plug it in. If that doesn't work for you, okay, but if the manual option is there, why aren't you using it?
Syncing worked well for several of my non-technical friends until they plugged it into another computer and it nuked their music. Most people don't realize that's an issue until it happens.
Syncing works for me, and probably does for most other people out there as well. In most cases, it's pretty good at putting the latest and greatest on my device without me having to do much except plug it in. If that doesn't work for you, okay, but if the manual option is there, why aren't you using it?