Your findings are very, very similar to mine when I got my SAM 440, Michael. My advice - get used to it, have fun. Anyone buying one of these new Amiga's should be well aware that a modern smartphone has more capability in daily use, sadly. They will never replace a PC, the software just is not there. It's like trying to drive a stock 1955 VW Beetle on the Autobahn. I run a BBS system on my SAM, and I love it. I enjoy it regardless of the fact that 5 callers a week telnet in, regardless of the fact I paid 900 bucks for this motherboard. I run an unreg MorphOS macmini machine, nice stuff as well, but I do like OS 4 more now that I am getting into coding. SDK is very nice. You'll learn to enjoy it after the sticker shock wears off.
