breaks the main purpose of XML based formats: portability. Don't know if there is a way to generate "kosher" SVG files in Illustrator as there is in Inkscape (aka, without all the additional formatting and stuff)
Yes, there is an option to create clean SVG files. Just uncheck the options "Preserve Adobe Illustrator Editing" and "Optimize for Adobe SVG viewer". I also recommend to use the option "output fewer <tspan/> elements" which suppresses Illustrators kerning behaviour, which results in a lot of tspan elements. Also, you can select a target profile (SVG 1.1 full, basic, tiny), define how the styling is exported, etc. I actually prefer some of the export options from Illustrator over the ones from Inkscape, esp. with the options on how to export styling or presentation attributes.
Here is a summary of Adobe Illustrator SVG options (http://www.adobe.com/svg/pdfs/illustrator_svg.pdf) - see page 7 for the export dialogue.
In summary, the Adobe Illustrator CS2 export is pretty good, I have to say. It preserves symbols, patterns, object names, gradients, filters, etc. It also supports textPath. One can also control encoding, number of decimal places and include SVG fonts. Pretty good. But people have to study the export options before complaining ...
Illustrator has problems with importing SVGs, esp. if there is a viewBox involved with values outside usual paper dimensions. This is where Inkscape does a much better job now. Also, Illustrator sometimes had problems with stroke-widths, when importing SVG.