I haven’t used iOs in a very long time, so don’t know what has changed or become better.
When I choose to attach a file in gmail, even in Android, it goes to the metadata option at first only. I am guessing hierarchical method is preferred by people like me whose storage is completely cluttered. For example, all my files are in the download folder and nothing in other folders. Apart from my music collection which is properly categorized and synced with my laptop over wifi by using an old app (not supported supposedly by latest android, but works flawlessly), everything is haphazard. One would think, metadata based browsing would be perfect for someone like me, but I still prefer searching through and arranging my files when I want to. I am guessing, the main problem people have is not about whether iOs metadata based browsing works or not. People like me just want to have the choice to choose. Why should Apple or any other company decide that for us. Again, I don’t really know what changes have happened over the years, so I’ll let others chime in.
This reason about choice is why I had to sell off my first iPad within 3 days of buying it and after spending 2k on softwares trying to get something specific to work. I wanted to play a video file stored on my laptop, on the iPad. At that time (I think it was the 4th gen iPad), Apple wouldn’t allow local playback of video files and one had to have a server side app installed which would do the actual playback using the laptop’s resources. I think I even had a thread here on TE about that and the conclusion was that nothing could be done, because Apple had decided that it would somehow make their experience less polished. So this lack of choice and freedom is the most irritating thing that can make one despise iOS despite the other good factors about it.
P. S. - I’ve had this happen with me that people fail to see the point I’ve made and start responding by saying how one can play a video now etc. That is not my point. The point, again, for people who might miss it, is that the same feature was available on Android even 2 years prior to when I bought the iPad. And the main point being that Apple chose not to give the freedom of choice to their buyers just because they had this notion that it would diminish the user experience. This methodology of theirs of not providing even basic functionality just because they felt that it wouldn’t be needed or whatever reason they felt, is why it makes it very difficult for someone like me who is a long time android user to switch to an Apple device.
