Preferences for the way iTunes/iPods organize albums?

[Rampant.A.I.]

I've always hated the way iTunes splits albums up by Artist/Featuring artist/Featuring vocals by/featuring, etc., so that when you search by Artist on your iPod it comes up split into 20,000 different mini albums.

Is there a way to turn all that crap off, other than manually editing the song tags and titles?

Why did Apple do this at all?

 

[Night Spring]

This article was about iTunes 7, but it should still work the same for iTunes 8&9.
http://www.tunequest.org/compilations-coverflow-and-album-artist/20061006/