> Is there any particular reason you don't just backup all of the user's personal files/configurations, note what programs they have installed and then reformat/reinstall?

Mostly down to client feedback. Personally, I'd much prefer to have the nuke and rebuild approach. I offer this as a preference (safer, faster, etc), but the familiarity of these pokey vendor-supplied apps for photos and the like is a very strong draw for folks.

The burden of technical knowledge doesn't run deep. They want a low-price laptop, and all their stuff safe and sound. The value they place in their data is, in my experience/anecdotally, proportional to their purchasing habits.

Most don't have hard drive backups, despite my continued insistence. Years of photos just get stockpiled without any recourse to a backup. There's some interesting psychology at stake, too; knowing that photos are there and actually referring to them are too entirely different things.