My comment isn't just about emacs. It's about all the tools we use. There is no real incentive to fix them. To make them work together. We wait for other people to make it. We all wait.
I can't whip up a tool better than emacs. I can't even imagine it. But, that doesn't mean it can't exist. And you're attitude towards my complaints? That's probably putting off your coworker, someone who could invent it.
This is your bizarro logic in action.
"Something better surely exists".
Well, no shit Sherlock.
Either 1) do something, 2) propose something better than someone else can implement, or 3) shut up.
Your comments are idiotic. Who told you that there aren't real people out there trying to implement something better than Emacs?
XCode 4's use of an actual parser's AST for code completion, refactoring and syntax highlighting comes to mind. Or Visual Studio's overall integration. Or even Eclipse meta-platform extensibility. Subethaedit's concurrent editing ability. And a lot more stuff, besides...
"Where are my robot ponies and flying-cars, they just have to be" is idiotic.