I’d rather stare at an attractively designed splashscreen for those few moments than an unresponsive menu screen.

I totally agree there! But I see it as a “lesser of two evils” kind of fix — a hopefully temporary solution. Ideally it’s possible to come back later and optimize loading time to the point that it isn’t unresponsive.

But of course this isn’t an ideal world. it’s not possible to solve every problem. Some apps need 3-5 seconds to start up on a phone — in that case, some kind of splashscreen is a necessary evil.

For what it’s worth, I’ve read that a “loading” screen (showing a static UI + a spinner) can work better than a static splash screen.

So I did some user testing. Everybody I tested it on said that the 3.5 second launch time with the loading screen was faster than the 3 second launch time with just the plain splashscreen, so it was clear that was the way to go.

–James Thomson, How To Make Your iPhone App Launch Faster

But if a pretty-logo splash screen tests better for your users, then clearly it’s the way to go! Maybe it’s breaking the HIG, or “best practices”, but it’s justified with real evidence.

My point is that, used properly, splashscreens are a good thing. You can’t use the app before it loads whether the splashscreen is there or not, and the splashscreen gives visual feedback that the app is still loading. I’d rather stare at an attractively designed splashscreen for those few moments than an unresponsive menu screen.