The main reason I would really like to be able to quickly access settings like airplane mode and wifi is that when I'm on the subway my phone is searching for signal a LOT, and when it's doing that, the radiation levels are the most dangerous and it becomes more carcinogenic.
For safety reasons apple should allow a quicker way to at least enable airplane mode. And they have to accept reality, yes their device has great battery life, but it doesn't last forever and we would like to be able to extend it by turning off services we are not using.