On touch touchscreen it feels natural to just touch the part of the screen you want to interact with. I hate the word, but it's intuitive. It doesn't feel like something you need to learn and become familiar with. My daughter understood how to use my iPad when she was less that one year old. She just touched the screen and something happened, she was happy. Even my mother-in-law understand how to use a touchscreen.
Neither my daughter nor my mother-in-law can use a mouse: it requires too much dexterity. I've seen people hovering a mouse in front of the screen hoping that something will happen. It's less intuitive, but it's familiar to all of us on hackernews.
What I'm trying to say is that there is something intrinsically natural and easy with a touchscreen: touch - interact. We won't go back from that.
I might be proven wrong, and tomorrow everybody will do on hover with its phone/tablet with the process you describe, or the one described by grovulent, or another one. But my guess is that it will remain mostly unused, except for a few "power users".
That's some very narrow thinking backed only by your anecdotal evidence.
Twenty years ago, I'm sure people would have been skeptical if you told them that someday, they would be able to wirelessly interact with a mass network of information via a touch-responsive, glassy device that fits in the palm of their hand.
Now where would be today if we'd listened to THOSE skeptics...
Or not.
On touch touchscreen it feels natural to just touch the part of the screen you want to interact with. I hate the word, but it's intuitive. It doesn't feel like something you need to learn and become familiar with. My daughter understood how to use my iPad when she was less that one year old. She just touched the screen and something happened, she was happy. Even my mother-in-law understand how to use a touchscreen.
Neither my daughter nor my mother-in-law can use a mouse: it requires too much dexterity. I've seen people hovering a mouse in front of the screen hoping that something will happen. It's less intuitive, but it's familiar to all of us on hackernews.
What I'm trying to say is that there is something intrinsically natural and easy with a touchscreen: touch - interact. We won't go back from that.
I might be proven wrong, and tomorrow everybody will do on hover with its phone/tablet with the process you describe, or the one described by grovulent, or another one. But my guess is that it will remain mostly unused, except for a few "power users".