I understand the difference between all the options, and use all of
them.  I am still confused by the GUI.  I think much of this is solvable
with pop-up dialogs.  See examples:

USB flash (thumb) drive:
1. Insert/connect drive.
2. [automount]
3. Press eject
4. Drive unmounts and dialog box appears: "No ejectable media found in drive.  
To disconnect, click 'safely remove drive.'"
5. ["safely remove" behaves as expected]

External USB CD/DVD Burner:
1. Connect external drive
2. [automount]
3. Press "safely remove"
4. Drive ejects and pop-up confirmation appears:  "Are you sure you want to 
turn off power to the drive?"
5. YES:  [Unmount and poweroff]  NO:  [Unmount only]
5. ["eject" behaves as expected]

The case of an external USB HDD is most concerning, because the hdd can
be powered up and active when the user suddenly unplugs it and regularly
forces an emergency powerdown while believing they properly prepared it
for removal.  We now have the GUI tools to avoid this (YAY!) -- but we
must have clarity.

The only remaining question for the beginning user at this point is:
"Ok, so what does 'UnMount' do then?"

Since "Unmount" is a more advanced option, it is normal and ok for this to be a 
question for new users of Unix-like systems.  They can search online for the 
answer, and should be directed to resources like this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount

It is fairly simple, and I think intuitive for the user to learn:  When
the drive is mounted, the files are accessible to read/write normally.
Unmounting leaves the drive "visible" but does not allow normal
read/write.

-- 
Context menu for an USB pendrive shows "Unmount", "Eject" and "Safely Remove 
Drive"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/453072
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