You are quite right on most of the points. But hopefully not "all calendars suck". You seem to refer calendars that are made for appointments, personal calendars shared for others to read and write more appointments on as corporate practice dictates. That is not the case with Teamup Calendar (
http://www.teamup.com). Teamup is a shared calendar app, starting with no personal account attached to it. Writing on a shared Teamup calendar is not "subtracting an hour" from anyone's life, but can well be setting a goal for the group, or just inform the group (or public if it is on a public website) what's going on, which helps group transparency. If two out of the ten events on a shared Teamup calendar impact your personal goals, export the two but not all ten to your own calendar.
The goal-oriented calendar model is very interesting. Outside of the appointment context, calendar apps with color-coded multiple sub-calendars, easy drag-drop functions, and multiple viewing options may serve the needs well. Why not using the calendar grids just like table cells with given date structure?