Nobody wants to help me?

I am being driven mad by why Maya does this. I have been playing with this all day wondering if I am doing something wrong since nobody will answer me.

I have played with this some more in the most simple of tests.
If you create a poly cube, it is fine with however many divisions you assign it. If you create a default subd cube it is fine as well.

As soon as you take a subd primitive cube (or anything) and convert it to polys, it doubles. Why is this?

Here are more pics:

Pic 1- default subd cube in poly mode to show 24 faces in heads up.

Pic 2- convert subd to poly window witth vertices setting which is what I want.

pic 3-heads up display shows 48 faces now instead of 24. If I select a face and delete or move it, there is another underneath.

I have played with ither settings including making the meshes single sided and it is the same thing.