This technique is also used in software engineering. Apple "makes it suck" when "it" should not be done regularly. Resetting an iPod requires an extremely unintuitive key sequence [0]. Apple doesn't want the user to know an iPod can be reset - resetting is something your PC does when it doesn't work anymore. But occasionally an iPod actually freezes, so they added a complicated sequence to reset the device. Even if you remembered the sequence, you wouldn't want to use it unless you needed it.

Elsewhere, Microsoft intentionally designed Vista's User Access Control dialogs to be irritating [1]. Microsoft wanted applications to stop using Administrator rights for no reason, so every privilege escalation painfully obvious: The screen fades to gray, and an extra dialog appears. Application developers get the same dialogs, and can trim unnecessary escalations out of their code.

[0] http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1320?viewlocale=en_us&loca...

[1] http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/on_software/1445...