I like Blender's approach, an informative overlay on the viewport with file open and recent file open options etc that's banished with a workspace click... I'm certain there's an option to turn off altogether, just never seemed of importance to look for that. I don't mind a splash per se, if it's serving some user purpose. I think a Poser gallery browser via the splash is a nice idea, as I stated earlier. Or something similar. I'd much rather see that than store advertisements. Of course that would mean a lingering splash, but if it went the Blender route not really an issue. One particular splash that's pretty annoying is the Photoshop loading splash, but it's been like that for as long as I can remember.

That's alotta splashes :-D