User Types

We're having a look at our User Types - specifically in the “Configurable Types” section of the Admin Kit, and to be honest, we're not really sure what User Types could be used for. It seems to me that the most useful thing you ought to be able to do with User Types is set defaults which would be inherited by users created for that type, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Users don't seem to be classified by “Type” anywhere in Users Management.
What would be really useful is if default settings could be applied to users based on their type; settings such as those in the Preferences tab, Roles, and User Settings in the User Details tab, including Command Centre Type.
Is there any way of achieving this?

There are currently in built system and user user types and as such they are not really exposed anywhere else. I would also say that we are looking to use this to help define remote users for remote access in Matter sphere. Is there any specific goal you are trying to achieve?

To give an example, it would be useful to be able to default values for user settings for an insurance fee earner as follows: Command Centre Type: Insurance Fee Earner
Precedent Category: Insurance Preferences: Auto Print;
... and then to be able to default Preferences per user type. For example, track changes are really important for Corporate users, but basically redundant for insurance and debt recovery users.
In addition, there are roles that we could associate automatically with user types. For example, Insurance Supervisors need the “Insurance Supervisor” role that we have created to manage certain elements of taskflow and some controls on wizards. It would be helpful to be able to default these, based on the user type.
I know we can set up all this on a user-by-user basis, but with a large number of users that's less manageable. I guess a data import could alleviate some of the pain, but even then we would benefit from this functionality in relation to our new starter process.
The value to us for this kind of functionality is therefore two-fold:
(1) It makes it easier for us to set up different “looks” of Matter Centre for different departments / types of work
(2) It makes it easier for us to set up new users. This is a biggy for us, as managing starters and leavers is a bit of a headache for us currently.