when adding a service reference an app.config is generated. What I'd like to know is, do the bindings, endpoints and everything else reflect the service, that I created the reference to? Do they specifically define that services bindings, security type,..etc, or is it simply a generic app.config? There seem to be a lot of settings..
Yes, the amount of stuff the Add Service Reference wizard dumps in your app.config/web.config is staggering - and largely unnecessary (because it basically puts in all the settings, even all of those that are default values).
Yes, the settings include thing like
If you're interested in learning how to manually create those configs to the bare minimum (which is very easy to do, very easy to understand, too!), watch these videos:
Both show how easy it is to create manual configs and how little you really need to supply! Highly recommended.