Archive result v. "Blog pages show at most"

So, I’ve got links in my sidebar for Archives listed by year. In 2011 I had 22 posts. When I click on the “2011” link all I see are 3 posts from that year.

Turns out, the number of posts displayed are limited by the setting “Settings > Reading > Blog pages show at most”. I have it set to three because I don’t want 22 posts displayed on my homepage.

First question: How can I bypass the “Blog pages show at most” limitation for archive results. And the second question: Why are the post archives being limited by the blog page post setting? Aren’t the two serving two completely different purposes?

Come on WordPress Masters of the Geek Arts, break that bind! After all, how hard can it be to have all the posts from a given year displayed on the Archives page, yet limit the number of posts displayed on the homepage? Somewhere, Joomla techies are laughing.

Any and all replies to this query are most graciously appreciated.