AppleScript is one way around it. Another would be to open a new, blank document just before quitting - Pages will open to that document instead of the chooser. The way I look at it, if you're organized enough to close all documents before quitting, then you're organized enough to open a new one before quitting.
Thing is, I almost always have documents open when I quit apps like Pages, so the chooser rarely opens for me. I pick up where I left off.
The logic seems pretty straightforward and effective, "Resume where you left off, or if you closed with a clean slate, open with the chooser." I can appreciate that some people are always going to want to open to a new document, but it seems more likely that a person won't know whether they'll want to open an existing document or start a fresh one.
I happen to be annoyed by word processors that automatically open to a template chooser or new document, since I often need to re-open existing documents. The Pages chooser offers a fairly neutral choice between opening previous documents or creating a new one.
But I've always had a messy desk. I'm fairly compulsive about putting tools away in a workshop or my kitchen, and cleaning up before I consider that work done. But "papers?" Nope.
