@amit @JohnPhilpin @vincent If I wasn't all in on Apple I would dump iCloud pretty quickly. It's a bad general purpose, cross-system platform, which I would guess is by intent.

Even being all-Apple, and surprised by how well they have developed Photos, I am not going to rely on it for anything even serious enough for hobbyist activity.

As for power users; I'd be surprised if the average person cares about anything you listed there, Amit, except maybe for search (even then I think searching well is not an expectation many people hold). I think you are a power user, and that isn't a bad thing.