You are right to some extent, but I think the reason I have these expectations is not that I'm some kind of computing perfectionist, it's simply that all my mac

You are right to some extent, but I think the reason I have these expectations is not that I'm some kind of computing perfectionist, it's simply that all my machines have had SSDs and high-res monitors for a while now. Once you get used to that (which doesn't take long at all) the old, painfully slow ways no longer seem 'reasonable'. Right now, my equipment may be fairly high-end, but we are fast approaching the day when virtually all computers have fast storage and 4K+ displays. In 1992, I thought it was reasonable to dial a modem, log onto the Interzone BBS, and have conversations like this one at 9600 baud in Zterm on a 512x342 pixel screen. Few people would accept that today, though. Having said that, I do agree that Dropbox + Lightroom + Picturelife is about as good as managing photos gets today. (I canceled my own Picturelife subscription, though, because using it was too slow.)