Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Yes, rooting is pretty much the only way to remove bloatware. If you have an icon for the unwanted application on your home page (any one of the home screens), you can remove it from there by long pressing on the icon until the screen flashes momentarily and allows you to move the icon, and then drag it to the trash can, but the application will still be in memory somewhere and the application will still be accessible from the apps screen.
When Ice Cream Sandwich comes along, you will have the option to disable an application, so it won't run at all, but the application file itself will still be resident.
Only somewhat relevant:
I created an extra facebook icon on one of the screens, created a folder, then dragged it into the folder. Holding it in landscape mode, the full width of the folder appeared, and tapping the X at the upper right temporarily made the folder disappear (temporarily!).