Is it really "making it too easy" if you're applying your knowledge of the structure of the problem space to make it easier for the computer to solve? Certainly this isn't easy to do with every problem, but it seems like a better idea in general to start with parameters you suspect to be correct.

In the "swiss cake roll" the circular nature of the classes suggests using a sin or cos function, and the fact that they spiral out suggests also inputting magnitude information. Sure, you can just add more neurons that will end up computing the same thing, but we might as well give the computer a head start when we can.