Q: Who else wishes that Apple would start using Aperture again

My read is that Apple's answer would be... use a third party app if you want those features. I've said it before on here: the ecosystem makes a lot of sense for a hardware maker: Apps that run across the platforms pretty seamlessly: Pages, Numbers, Photos and so on. They are good basic apps and they're free. But the key word there is basic. You want to do a quick flyer or write a resumé - Pages is fine. Want to write a PhD thesis running to 100k words with citation and referencing? You're going to need Mellel, Nisus or Word. Same with Photos: a good app that works for a good number of people and covers most cases. Want more power and flexibility... go get a more powerful app like LR, Capture One or similar...

My read is that Apple's answer would be... use a third party app if you want those features. I've said it before on here: the ecsystem makes a lot of sense for a hardware maker: Apps that run across the platforms pretty seamlessly: Pages, Numbers, Photos and so on.

My reason to buy Macs has always been the great software that can only run on a Mac. When i have to fall back on Adobe  Software or Microsoft than there is no longer any reason for me to buy expensive special hardware. Lightroom and Photoshop will run on less expensive PCs.

My reason to buy Macs has always been the great software that can only run on a Mac

And if that's your reason to buy a Mac then indeed, it might be time to reconsider your OS and hardware. These are pragmatic decisions, not emotional ones.

For me it has never been about exclusive software but rather the working environment of a Mac. It's just a much nice place to spend time, and I spend an awful lot of time with these machines. But make no mistake, I mourned the passing of Aperture. My ties to the OS and ecosystem have been weakened. I hoped that Photos might be close to Aperture in capability. It took about 5 minutes with the app to realise that it's not. Nor do I believe it ever will, it's just not built that way. The user of Photos is, in my reading of Apple's scenario, someone who doesn't actually want to spend a whole lot of time with their photos. So the plan is make it simple, convenient and quick. In that it succeeds. Folks like you or I who actually like to spend time tweaking and nudging and fixing really aren't in the mindset of the developers. Even if we were, the sheer ugliness of the app would drive me away. It really is an unlovely beast.

Now I use other software, and for my use, it's actually superior to Aperture - reflecting the stagnation of Aperture and the continued development of the alternatives. The workflow is still not as refined as Aperture, but the tools are better.  It's a trade-off. I didn't want to make that trade-off, but it had to be done. I can see no future whatever in sitting on my hands hoping that Aperture will come back. That's just delaying the inevitable. One day Aperture will no longer work, and that's going to make the transition to whatever alternative you choose much more difficult. The only certainty is that one day the last remaining users will have to move on.

And if that's your reason to buy a Mac then indeed, it might be time to reconsider your OS and hardware. These are pragmatic decisions, not emotional ones.

 

For me it has never been about exclusive software but rather the working environment of a Mac.

It is both for me - the leading edge professional software exclusive to  a Mac and the working environment, the consistency in the menus across all applications, the integration with the media browser, the look and feel. I have been using Macs at work for presentations since the first Mac came out, but I bought my first private mac to replace my Linux system when Apple released the Developer Tools and it became possible to build graphical user interfaces with magnificent tools.

I don't mind to have to pay for third-party applications, if there is no equivalent tool on the Mac. But the third-party products tend to be "foreign bodies", feeling out of place in the Mac working environment and breaking with every system update. When I am installing such a tool, because there is no alternative on the Mac, it will usually delay the ability to update OS X early, because I have to wait for updates to the third party software. It is a lot of work to keep track of the compatibilities, if many third-party apps are installed.  For example, after the Yosemite upgrade, it took a long time, before LaTeX worked again reliable - all upper case greek letters were missing from the equations in my lecture notes, because some fonts moved. After the El Capitan upgrade Melodyne kept crashing, and there was no update - it is still listed as Yosemite compatible. Microsoft Office '2011 is no longer fully compatible. Adobe Acrobat does no longer show all my embedded videos and some embedded PDF images in my presentations.

Because of many years of bad experiences with third party applications when upgrading the system, I try to keep the essential software "Apple-Only" and try to avoid mixed software. It is bad enough for my private Macs, but at work I have the added complication that the laboratories for the students are having different models of Macs, purchased in different years with different system versions.

The only certainty is that one day the last remaining users will have to move on.

That's why I recommended to be prepared for the inevitable.

Interesting. Of course, everyone's usage is different. My work is in the Humanities so I don't need greek fonts for Math Equations (and a good thing too as with me the fonts would be least of the problems!). Also, I don't have to integrate with students like you do. But for comparison: I just popped open the App Switcher and the only Apple app running (apart from the Finder) is Mail, and I have 15 apps open. I use a replacement for the Finder, (Pathfinder), replacement for Spotlight (Foxtrot Pro), replacement for Pages (Scrivener, Ulysses, Word) and for Safari (Vivaldi), for Preview (PDF Expert).  All of these I arrived at simply because I got to the limits of the Apple apps - to the point where they could not do what I needed or wanted to do.

As for updates... apart from the above named, I use DevonThink Pro Office, Bookpedia, Bookends and Quiver, Keyboard Maestro and Typinator on a daily basis. I also have a collection of utilities running - LaunchBar, Hazel, TextSoap. I've been locked out of one app ever, and that was for a few days. But that was on the OS Beta track, not with official releases. So I'm not actually delaying updates, I'm actually installing them before release.

Bluntly, if I stuck to only Apple apps - or even mostly Apple apps - I'd get very little done. But this is fine. I would be the same on Windows. The core apps would not do what I want or need and so I'd be installing extra.

I am now very selective about the third party apps I install.Ten years ago my macs had many little helpers installed, LaunchBar, WindowShade, DragThing, Perian, ...

I am now very frugal with add-ons, because it makes troubleshooting easier after an update. And if I use third-party apps, I prefer open source software.

Neither the iWork apps nor the Office apps can do what I need for lecture notes and presentations (or at least the last time I looked). I want to write the equations, proof, definitions, citations only once, and with consistent equations umbers and page references, that will update automatically, if I insert some text. And I need to be able to derive new slides and handouts from the one body of text.  The only application that can do that is LaTeX, afaik.  Not even iBook Author, even if Apple is claiming it has been created for scientific textbooks  But I could find no way to include a numbered theorem and to refer to the theorem from later chapters consistently, without having to update all theorem numbers manually. LaTeX has been incredibly stable. I can still open the TeX documents that I created 1983 in Stanford. 

So I'm not actually delaying updates, I'm actually installing them before release.

I have to do the same, to be ahead of my students I cannot afford to be surprised by incompatibility issues when the new semester starts.