I know some people will love newsstand, I for one, will NEVER use and and it drives me crazy that I can't hide it. It just sits there. I mean, I know it's not the biggest deal in the world, but it works my OCD a bit.
Yeah, you should be able to nuke it and redownload from the App Store if you'd like rather than having to play games to hide it. To be fair, Apple devices come with a minimal amount of apps like this compared to other manufacturers.
On my iPad and MacBook Air I have simply grouped all of those types of apps together in a folder and placed it where they won't be seen very often.
I'm not saying it doesn't but for me and others we just don't want icons we're never gonna use and this is even worse because you can't put it in a folder. And I also don't want to create a separate page just to put it there and keep it out of sign.