It was one reason that I never liked iPhoto as it took over the filling for you... Aperture is similar so I don't use that either as I don't like the way it does things as well.
No it doesn't - and neither does Aperture. Both offer the opportunity to store the files for you, but that's storage and nothing to do with filing. They both offer many many more opportunitues for you to categorise, file, search, organise, process and display your photos than the Finder ever does.
The confusion is common and it's related to the 'Save As...' palaver as well. It's based on a simple confusion. Your data is not the file that contains it - anymore than the shoebox is your shoes.
The illustration I use is as follows: In my iTunes Library I have a file called 'Let_it_Be_The_Beatles.mp3'. So what is that, exactly? It's not the song. The Beatles never wrote an mp3. They wrote a tune and lyrics. They recorded it and a copy of that recording is stored in the mp3 file. So the file is just a container for the recording. That container is designed in a specific way attuned to the characteristics and requirements of the data. Hence, mp3.
Similarly, that Jpeg is not your photo, it's a container designed to hold that kind of data. iPhoto and Aperture are all about the data and not about the container. So, regardless of where you choose to store the file, these apps will manage the photo, edit the photo, add metadata to the Photo but never touch the file. If you choose to export - unless you specifically choose to export the original - they will export the Photo into a new container - a new file containing the photo.
iPhoto has been doing this for years. Aperture the same. iMovie, Final Cut and every other database app out there too. Now this form of working with your data rather than the file is coming to everything - and it's coming on every OS.
What is 'Save As...'? One of two things:
Freeze the data at this moment and save it into a different file of the same format. So I freeze the data in this Word File (doc) and save it as another Word File (also doc).
The new process freezes the data at this moment and saves it... into the same file. You can still revert to the data at the same point, you can split and move into different directions and rever to this point and so on. The only difference... the frozen data is accessible via a different method.
Or: Freeze the data at this moment and save in a Different format:So I freeze the data in this Word File (doc) and save it as another kind of file: txt, pdf, rtf etc. That's what export does.
and there were all these 'versions' around, unlike iTunes where you can have it do what you want.
Well "all these 'versions'" were the reason for you to use iPhoto or Aperture - lossless editng. If you didn't want that why would you even consider using these apps in the first place.?
It wouldn't be too bad if there was a sort of 'consolidate' function that basically took the file as it was at that moment saved it and deleted all the previous versions.
Export. Trash the original?