I'm moving quickly b/c I have a call to lead, but the installation thing is still something I find weird -- and not that YOU were flummoxed, but that anyone is. "Drag to /Applications" is about as simple as it can be, but MSFT's years of dominance led people to a place where they really, really feel like that can't be right. I've had many conversations with new Mac users about this. It's wild, and is kind of an example of something my pals and I used to say about Windows in the 90s: even in light of the monopolistic behavior, it may well be that the worst thing MSFT ever did was the degree to which they lowered user expectations.

It sounds like you're on the toolchain that serves you best. That's precisely where you oughta be! Good for you!

Regarding plists, I guess I wonder why you needed to edit them outside of the app that wrote them. When I've needed to do that, I've just used emacs -- they're nearly always text, aren't they? I mean, I would definitely consider myself a power user of the platform, but it's been a LOOOOONG time since I needed to mess with a .plist manually, so I could be misremembering.

I would definitely be willing to stipulate, though, that editing those files manually is pretty far off the rez, so to speak, from normal user behavior.

> "to me it feels like apple just completely stopped caring about ux-related progression,

I don't think that's exactly fair, but it probably IS fair to say that they don't care about the things in the UX that you care about, which can feel like the same thing.

> doesn't care about powerusers, doesn't care about linux-devs,

This probably IS fair, to a point, but the core system is still there and is still pretty friendly to linux dev types. It's just that Windows has made a big stride in the meantime.

> doesn't care about how terrible their window-management is (seriously, show me how to toggle through windows of the same application, or how to move a window from one screen to another with your keyboard.

I actually prefer the Mac window management, fwiw. Cmd-tab flips apps, as you know; Cmd-tilde switches windows in the current app. I use both all the time. The distinction here between apps and windows is one that Windows doesn't make, so I totally get being wrong-footed by this, but it's really just an example of the system being different to Windows, not "wrong" in an objective way.

I don't know how to move windows from screen to screen in any OS, so I can't help you there. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some way to do it, though, since Apple is typically pretty forward-thinking when it comes to accessibility.

> four extra applications

I have NEVER seen ANY OS that I didn't want to add bits to. I'd be lost on a Mac without Alfred, for example, plus a real cloud backup too, plus Little Snitch, plus Dropbox, etc.

My "home set" includes a bunch of these things, but it was the same in Windows, and when I set up Linux environments it's the same there, too. So I guess I'm not sold that this is a problem so much as an inevitable thing that advanced users like you and I do.

You get my meaning?

Anyway, I don't find myself wanting anything in MacOS that I don't have, to be super honest. It's powerful and flexible enough for me, and it doesn't make me want to pull my hair out like Windows always does. I definitely DO think that desktop OS options are looking less shiny generally because mobile has taken pretty much all the limelight in these last 10 or so years, especially as iOS on iPads has become so dang powerful and usable (no lie, I rarely take my laptop off my desk anymore -- the iPad is plenty, even if I need to connect to some work server or something). Many folks are in a position where an iPad plus a keyboard is all they need, which is kind of amazing -- it's GREAT for people like my 80 year old mother.