A sample size of one is great if the total population is also one. However, as the population size grows a sample of one becomes rapidly useless.

Unless you decide that your single case is the most important:

While I occasionally use my iPhone timer, especially when dealing with my children, I highly depend on the alarm section. And isn’t the driving force behind Control Center to give users quick access to the most used functions of their device?

Let’s reduce the validity of this case by a quick 50%: my experience is just the opposite. I use the timer frequently, multiple times per week, and use the alarm? Well, I think I used it once in June but can’t be sure. It was long ago.

It might be that Apple knows exactly what they are doing, that they have studied the usage of the clock functions and know that the timer is more heavily used.

I am happy with this default. On the other hand, I sympathize with those that aren’t. It could have been me that was unhappy.

Now, what would be cool for Apple to do is to make the default clock icon/function user configurable. Then both Brent and I could be happy!