I've recently simplified my note-taking workflow but there are complexities. IMHO, a note taking application needs a way to at least do the following with notes:

* View and edit

* Organise

* Search

* Sync

All in one solutions can be nice but also lock you in. It is as the name says: all or nothing (well all or figure out how to migrate your notes to another application). My current workflow is to use different tools for different jobs. The downside is it's more to set up and it may not be suitable for everybody.

* I use any markdown editor to view and edit notes

* I use the filesystem to organise notes by broad categories (directories are never more than two deep)

* I can use any tool I like for searching notes (my markdown editor(s) has one but I can also all use ripgrep or whatever tool I like)

* I sync using my preferred cloud storage provider

My markdown editor is doing most of the job of a note taking app but the point is I can seamless switch for something else without much hassle. Or use different ones on different platforms.

This does require search tools to do a lot of heavy lifting when broad categories aren't enough to find something. But I've yet to find a better way (I've not had much success managing tags, they get messy fast).