iPhoto stinks becuase of more than 1 minor thing!
1. File structure is useless
That is a bit black and white. After all the much easier (in my mind) ways of doing what you want to do, I'm not sure why the file structure is all that important. But really, aside from changing "04" to "April" how exactly would you have iPhoto store photos aside from year/month/date ?!
2. Keyword, dates, etc... Not stored with photo
They are for me...
Perhaps not ratings and notes, but certainly dates (like every file) and it keeps all my EXIF data intact, like exposure time, aperture size, ISO settings. So you want the ratings to stay within the EXIF data? why? AFAIK, if you stored "iphoto ratings" ect in the EXIF data, it would only be useful to a program that knew how to read EXIF data put there by iPhoto.
3. SLOW with large amounts of pictures
I have a 1.25mgz computer and load 4000 pictures amounting to 1.8 gigs, and the library loads faster than PS CS can open a picture...
4. Changing/adding Keyword and dates is clunky compared to other programs
haven't tried other apps, but I do wish it was easier to change dates in mass (and not all to the exact same date).
5. Keeping original photos with no option to NOT keep them is silly
does it actually keep two completely different copies of the image? I always assumed it just recorded the effects (to which there are very few in iPhoto) and applied/un-applied them as people messed with photos or reverted back to original.
To me 1 and 2 are show stoppers...
If you want to see it done right, check out Mucrosoft Digital Image Library (contained in Digital Image Suite) on the PC...
(I am not bashing the Apple... just iPhoto.... I cannot live without iMovie/iDVD... )
sounds to me a bit like you are expecting Prosumer results from regular joe shmoe (and even that is low) program for sorting pictures that is essentially free. Especially for you, seeing as you obviously will continue to buy iMovie/iDVD as it is updated, you are getting iPhoto for nothing.
If there is a better program to use, by all means go use it. I don't think Apple is claiming iPhoto as the professional picture sorter of the year, nor are they charging a professional price for it. Certainly my parents don't care about EXIF data (or know what it is), nor do I'm sure 99.9% of Apple users today. My mom has a hard time navigating the file structure of the OSX, yet she can handle the GUI of iPhoto with ease. This I believe is the point of iPhoto.
So why complain about Professional style features on an obviously consumer level product?
For the record though, iPhoto works splendidly for my own professional photography work, and the price is far lower than any other program I use.
-Tyler Zuck