What is up with Cinderella?

Cinderella is one of the most popular and well renown fairy tales in existence. It has been done over and over and over and over and over and over again with only slight variations. A beautiful yet misunderstood girl gets mistreated by an evil stepparent and often very ugly stepsisters, usually the mother. On the night of the largest social event of the year the step-evil finds a way of making sure that the girl does not get to go. While the girl is crying and generally feeling sorry for herself something magical happens (a fairy godmother, a magic tree, magic birds, crazy inventor/artist, talking mice...ect.) and the girl is given a mere few hours to go to the event in her amazing dress and form of transportation made from a common garden gourd. At the event she meets a prince who falls in love with her in a matter of seconds and all to quickly the time is up and she has to run out and accidentally leaves a shoe behind. The next day the prince (who is almost never given a name) scours the entire kingdom/state/country to find her and eventually he finds the one foot in the entire kingdom that fits the magic (often glass) shoe, and they get married and live forever in bliss.

Now I could start by saying "WHAT A FREAKING LOAD!" and I will.
WHAT A FREAKING LOAD!
First of all, the story is based solely on physical appearance. A girl who a prince wouldn't look twice at her in her natural habitat gets a pretty dress, takes a bath, and puts her hair up and suddenly he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. I mean superficial much?
Also, the evil and ugly step-things. I do understand that there are evil step-things in the real world. I really do, but not all of them. Also, why do the stepsisters always have to be ugly? Why does Cinderella have to be beautiful? What would happen if everyone in the story was average looking?
Here are some other strange questions that have popped into my head:
Why is the prince never given a name?
How is it that in an entire kingdom that only Cinderella's foot fits the shoe?
Why glass shoes? They would be uncomfortable and dangerous.

Last thing before I go...
How come we, as a society, teach our children to depend on the magic fix-all? Sadly no fairy godmothers come to our aide when we cry, no mice come to make us a dress, no prince gets a magic shoe that will only fit on your foot. Really, we should just save us from ourselves.

Sarah K