It IS possible, as you wrote (by changing the dafault template). Therefore I don't see a defect 
here. If you intend to change styles every time you use the office and re-use them the next 
time, make an empty copy of that very document with your "favorite styles of the last session". 
This document will have all the styles without any content. Open it the next time you start and 
you have all "your" styles. By the way: changing the default template is only a few clicks as 
well. Having it "easier" or with a different UI would be an enhancment. I change the issue type 
accordingly and reassign it to Christian.

You want to find the most straightforward and obvious way to do 
something. I don't program OO, I just use it, and from a user 
perspective, the most obvious way to do anything is the one that 
should work.  To my eyes, the paragraph styles are not part of a 
document, they're part of a list of little things the program can 
do.  It doesn't make sense for them to be part of a template, it 
makes sense for them to be in a little edit-able list.  If that's a 
feature enhancement, then by all means, make it one.  Changing 
default templates is in no way as intuitive as right clicking in the 
list, selecting "new", and expecting it to be there when I come back.

I've spent some time arguing with people about this, and I think I've
refined what I want to ask for, which probably won't end up being
possible anyway.  What it seems my issue is is that I don't see the
paragraph styles window as being so much a part of a template as a
part of the program itself.  Some cases were made as to why this is a
good thing, and I guess I can accept.  But since it still seems to be
asking for a lot of foresight and extra work to retain any changes
that I make to the style list for all new document, would there be a
way to make the program specifically be able to save just the changes
to paragraph styles to the template that it's using at the time? (And
ask me if I wanted to so after making the change).  Just saving a new
template would save essays and things, since I often change or make
new styles upon finding a need for one, but having the program make
this alteration would save the functionality that was argued for and
yet also give the stupid user (read: me) something that works as expected.

Reassigned to Bettina.

OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request.

The Issue you raised has the status 'New' pending further action, but has not
been updated within the last 4 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the
latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed.
Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing):
http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/
 
Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as
necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also
wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have
advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi
 
Many thanks,
Andrew
 
Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of:
~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~
http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html

*** Issue 94826 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on
my owner to the owner "requirements".