Question

Why aren’t menus inflated automatically for you in Android, the way an Activity’s layout is?

Answer 1

They are, just override like this:

 @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {     
        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.YOUR_MENU_LAYOUT, menu);
        return true;    
    }

EDIT, heres a sample xml, they go in /res/menu

<menu>
   <item android:id="@+id/menu_sample"
          android:title="Sample text"
          android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_sample"
     />

</menu>