iMessage is a mess because 1) messages don't properly sync between devices 2) if I leave my iPad at home and go into a no reception zone, my messages will go to my iPad and never get to my phone, 3) sometimes I'll get a message and when I go to the conversation the message I just received will be gone, and won't appear unless I quit the Messages app or restart the phone
iCloud is a mess because there are outages all the time, my games always don't properly sync with one another across devices, photostream is buggy (photos will download automatically when I have bad reception, and then get stuck in a pixelated form and never take on their true full resolution), document sync via text edit or pages is useless, and there's a ton of DropBox esque features that would take iCloud to the next level, but those are missing (presumably because they want to fix the mess that it is before they take on new features).
Should I keep going?
No i get it i think. I must not be using it in the same way. For instance i rarely see issues with iMessage, although i suppose it makes sense that syncing has issues when you leave coverage. I am quite impressed as to how i can go back and fourth between iPad and iPhone on the same conversation.
I've never seen an outage on iCloud or seen the other issues you describe, but at times i am a bit surprised on how long it takes pix to show in Photostream.