Well, Codger, how artful are you? I have met most of the issues you bring up in your Finale crit, and while some of them are perhaps less intuitive than others, I have no problems. I've been using Finale for camera-ready copy for a number of years and find that I can do anything I need. Occasionally there's an awkward workaround I admit. But it's occasionally.

I own Sibelius (I bought a competitive upgrade when it was on sale) but I have not learned it, and have only used it when I have files sent to me to edit. So I can't compare the two. But I have seen no reason to abandon Finale, apart from the annual (expensive to me) upgrades. But earlier versions work well for me, and you only need a later version if someone sends you files. Finale files are not backwards compatible, ie you can't open them in earlier versions of Finale. But they can be exported in XML and opened that way if you have the software available for that.

Finale's text handling, I admit, is adequate at best. I generally do book layout in a page layout program and export Finale music graphics into it, and handle text there.

Hope this helps.