How do I make the administrative UI feel like Joomla?
You were going in the right direction with:

function MYMODULE_form_alter(&amp;$form, &amp;$form_state, $form_id) {
  $form['revision_information']['#type'] = 'hidden';
}


However, you have a bug in that code. The code above will modify every form. Instead, use hook_form_FORM_ID_alter to target the specific form.