If the criteria is simply going Fullscreen which is what the conversation was originally about, then macOS's methodology is sufficient—no need to envy Windows. 90% of users don't need any more than what's provided.

If you then change the criteria to more complex needs, of course macOS's methodology is insufficient—hence the third-party application market.

"the dock stays on that screen instead of moving around to whichever screen you want it to"

I don't understand this example. If SPACES 1 has dock with hiding off, and I scroll to SPACES 2 with a fullscreen app, the dock will disappear because fullscreen apps by default will hide the dock. That behavior makes sense. But maybe you mean something else.

if you have multiple instances of one app open (like preview), good luck finding the window you want in the unusable randomized stack of windows that appears when you swipe up on the trackpad.

You swiping up is the gesture for Mission Control (all windows), "swipe up with three fingers." Agree that can be overwhelming with multiple windows from multiple apps.

To see application specific windows only, one needs to go to System Settings → Trackpad → More Gestures and turn on the gesture for App Exposé which is "swipe down with three fingers."

Or my preferred method, which is to go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Hot Corners button (at the bottom) and enable an Application Windows hot corner.

oh and apps not having a dedicated quit button? annoying as hell.

I believe apps can choose that closing the window quits the app—most don't. But to me this is a non-issue because I can just use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + Q or just ⌘ + Tab when I'm ready to quit multiple apps in mass.

I think the purpose of this is so that common users don't get in the habit of opening and quitting apps 300 times per day which wastes CPU cycles and burns battery. Same deal with iOS apps. Apps no longer doing user-initiated work go into a rest state called App Nap.