not being an API designer in any sense, I just imagine some way to do the same functions I do via the GUI, programatically. Since the WFS and WMS is so heavily RESTful, I guess the temptation is to do the same with an administrative API.
as for the Auto-Style creation, here’s the JIRA issue, created at CHolmes’ request: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GEOS-1168
thanks,
mike