This is what I think Apple can do about it: just resting your finger on the home button will open the lock screen. Clicking it will unlock the phone to the home screen.

So if you don’t want to see the lock screen you can just click it immediately without first resting your finger on it. Just like it works now. Everybody happy. No need for settings.

It’s kind of like peek and pop, as in there are two levels you can use the home button. Activating the lock screen and unlocking it. You can stop at he first level if you want, or you can click through to unlock.