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Tugsim Pretty much agree with your comments, and not those seemingly defending Teams. As an IT Pro with little experience in Teams (but extensive experience in Office and plenty of other IT systems) trying to assist some people trying to start using Teams, I can attest that Teams is far from effective or efficacious. These people have used IT for many years, just not something like Teams. The number of barriers that are presented just to get simple aspects of group participation going seem never-ending (if not one thing, then another to be researched and then solved). The information provided by standard Microsoft channels seems woefully inadequate, and totally unsuitable for "ordinary" people to read.

The 4 video view limitation discussion appears to have been around for quite some time, and given that other tech organisations seem to have solved this problem long ago, it is incredulous that more excuses are rolled out by Microsoft with respect to this area.

And the Swiss Army Knife vs Scalpel analogy is misleading, I think. I would prefer that the analogy is a Swiss Army Knife vs a Cutlery Set (even a picnic cutlery set, if one insists on portability). Of course one can try to eat one's meal with a swiss army knife, but it is difficult and annoying, to say the least. So much so that very few people do so on a regular basis. A swiss army knife is there for a reason - provide a portable multi-purpose tool that will just manage when nothing else is available (and needs to be small and portable). In all other circumstances, one would choose the right set of tools with the right functionality for the job-at-hand. So, one would always use a proper cutlery set - with a proper knife (say, the collaboration tool) combined with the proper fork (say the office tool) and the proper spoon (say the database and apps tool).

Or, if one doesn't like the cutlery analogy, then use a simple tradesman or home toolbox. If you need a screwdriver, pull out the screwdriver with a proper handle - much easier than trying to use the weeny screwdriver on a swiss army knife. Ditto for scissors. Don't get me started if you need a hammer!

Suggesting that Teams is the Swiss Army Knife of IT products is actually a terrible indictment of the product. It means that it is barely functional for a whole variety of tasks, and should only be used in circumstances where the proper tools that one needs are not available.

Unfortunately, the whole experience seems to be another "me too" attempt by Microsoft. Witness Internet Explorer. Completely overwhelmed by way better browsers available from other suppliers, but forced corporate users, beholden to the dictates of corporate IT departments fixated on the Microsoft only product set, to use a substandard browser for a substandard user experience. Until Microsoft finally realised (after so many corporate IT departments finally allowed use of Chrome, or Firefox because they could no longer hold out) that they had to do so much better - that they actually had to give their browser a new name so it would not be associated with the terrible IE name. One hopes that this will not be the experience with Teams, but given that there is some serious competition out there and people are not afraid to use those products, Microsoft may not have much choice but to lift their game with respect to Teams (and other such associated products).