That's standard policy for every country I know of. That's just how visas work.
When you get to passport control in pretty much any country, they evaluate anything that might be suspicious, look at your passport stamps, ask you for explanations, interview you further... and have complete control to send you back to wherever you came from, and not let you in.
It's standard policy, but it was introduced in an age when checking people against a database before they even get on the plane (as the US and many other countries now also do) was not a feasible option.
These days we should be able to pre-clear people accurately enough that passport control at destination should be a formality.
(Also, my country for one does not hassle their own returning citizens at immigration the way the US likes to.)
Well, in 99% of cases I think it is a formality -- I've never been turned away from a border before, nor do I know anyone personally who it's happened to. So I don't know what you mean by pre-clearing, or what you want it to gain.
If you're looking for a 100% assurance that, as a foreigner, if you get on the plane, you get let in the country, that's never going to happen, for security reasons. There will always be only some things that only passport control will catch.
I mean, a country's borders are the last chance to turn someone away, so it makes sense that that's where a certain level of scrutiny will apply. And the only people a country is going to trust to do that, is its own passport control workers. That's just a reality.
And as far hassling returning citizens... as an American, I would be horrified if I encounter trouble returning to the US, just tremendously pissed off.
But I can also understand that, with the US probably being the most popular country in the world to want to sneak into, people might be trying to fake their way into the US as supposed citizens, and that determining citizenship and identity at immigration might not always be as straightforward as it might. (But I still think it's horrifying to have to go through computers, phones, text-messages, etc... - I'm not defending that at tall!!)
Oh God.