> What drives me nuts about them is that they impede the default
> behavior for typing when you already have a selection - deleting the
> selection and replacing it with what you type. If what you type
> happens to start with $(, you get very different behavior that if it
> starts with something else.

No it doesn't.  You have a selection, you want to replace it with
other text that begins with a parenthesis.  So you type the
parenthesis and the selected text is surrounded by parentheses, but
the text remains selected, so just keep typing, therefore the text is
then replaced with what you type.

Granted, it gives you the closing parenthesis too, but how often do
you want an opening without a closing?

 - Chris