The idea is that people identify with Clark because he has a secret that he feels he can't tell anybody, just like everybody else does. If he suddenly started telling people his secret, he would be harder for the audience to identify with.
As is discussed in intro to english lit for non-majors, a common theme in literature for hundreds of years has been that of the outcast/outsider who is not accepted and feels set apart from all others. This property makes protagonists more likeable because everybody has things they want to keep hidden from others. Comic book heroes almost universally make extensive use of this idea, and it's no surprise that the writers for the TV show would not want to stray from it. If I could go back and redo my Junior theme from HS, I'd make that my topic.
Not to insult the actress, she was great in Eurotrip, but smallville suffers from a huge overdose of lana/clark interaction, and if they divided that content by ten (or at least converted 90 percent of it from emo to action scenes) I would find it to be more entertaining. I find the character development of lex luthor to be much more interesting, and am curious to understand at what point he ceased to become Annakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader, so to speak.
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