I wholeheartedly agree, and I think this trend is a mistake. A couple notes before I arrive at Home are tolerable, but the ugly transparent overlays with text and arrows come at the worst possible moment: when I’m first taking in the interface and trying to figure out how it works.

Perhaps there should be a Help state that is accessible from the Settings area to access the instructional overlays.

aaroneous:

Good iOS apps shouldn’t need instructions either