finitefutility What fancy proprietary productivity tools are you referring to
I was thinking of the "graph" and "canvas" features advertised on their homepage.
https://obsidian.md/
For me personally, it looks cool and probably useful, but I worry about becoming dependent on these Obsidian-specific features, and that contributing to a feeling of lock-in.
I already experienced a similar behavioral cycle like that with Google:
- get hooked on fancy feature in a problematic tool
- decide its time to move away from problematic tool
- realize that its hard to find a new values-aligning alternative tool that also has the fancy feature I miss
- suffer a high cognitive switching cost from old tool to new tool, because I locked myself in by using too many fancy features.
That being said, I understand that the scope for OP's request is for just the basics, not necessarily the fancy features.
And no disrespect those who choose to use the fancy features anyway, or who use the basic features of a tool without opting for the bundled-in fancy features.
For me personally, I have been burned in the past, so I am more cautious now. Just thought I'd share in case others might relate.