Power users not being impeded is precisely my point, and you've made it for me. That these features are considered "advanced" and thus buried is my argument.
These kinds of features are not surfaced readily (existing many interactions deep, and not single gesture or action operations) or they are completely absent from the bundled operating system distribution, despite comprising essential utilities.
> That these features are considered "advanced" and thus buried is my argument.
You're making the assumption that people, general users, even care about these features. What evidence do you have that this is the case?
Everything I've seen indicates most people have other things that are much more important to them than open text-based file formats or hierarchical directory structures for locally storing files.
Okay a very simple way to add context to my claims, to prove that these are intrisic features of any operating environment that must function without network access, as a standalone system, is to look at how internet-based entities replicate similar bahaviors to enable web based collaboration.
Proving my point is the existence of URL shorteners (as analagous to file names and paths on a local machine) and plain text snippet sharing sites such as pastebin (as analogous to users passing plain text snippets on a shared standalone system).
So too with pixel editing. This is a fundamental aspect of an operating environment, and one that Preview.app performs inadequately at, and the likes of which OS X does not otherwise support natively.
Personally, I agree or understand with a lot of what you're saying. Where I differ is your statement that there is or should be lots of interest in these things by the 'mass market'.
That makes about as much sense to me in 2017 as it would be to go back to 1983 and suggest people really need to toggle switch in a boot loader to understand how a personal computer works.
Asserting that pixel editing is "fundamental aspect of an operating environment" is not just flimsy, it's highly subjective at best and entirely without substance.
Windows doesn't have a bash shell, an NFS client, a PDF annotation tool, or instant file previews; I'd consider these far more serious omissions.
Asserting that full access to the file system is 'buried' in MacOS is flat-out wrong, and borderline insulting. It's all there in the Go menu which is visible on screen.
If MacOS doesn't ship with your obscure checklist of "essential utilities" then go cry in the corner quietly. Meanwhile Windows 10 doesn't even ship with a real bash shell, which I consider essential.
Go buy a new mac and unbox it fresh, and try out the experience which speaks for itself. I'm not talking out my ass. You sound pretty mad. Watch your emotional tenor, lest you slip into personal attacks, or has that already happened?
These kinds of features are not surfaced readily (existing many interactions deep, and not single gesture or action operations) or they are completely absent from the bundled operating system distribution, despite comprising essential utilities.