Agreed. I got enthused about the Power Platform, with Power BI and Power Apps, mostly. With Power BI, you get a mix of Power Query M the DAX formula language, and then comes the power automate (flow) and power apps where you use this formula language that's still different. Too much to learn. I'm not even sure if the power automate formula language is the same as the one used in power apps. Confusing.

Power Bi is nice, but expensive.

You need a costly instance as soon as you go more advanced.

My firm is all-in Microsoft and I have to say it's not working. Power BI licenses are limited, Azure cloud cost are through the roof, anything you'd have run on a proper workstation in the old days is retired 'since we have cloud' (as are tools like SAS, MATLAB and other end user modelling languages). As a non-developer but technically inclined person I've tried to find courses in non-obvious MS-software but couldn't find anything worthwhile. The pushback I receive for suggesting R or Python for modellong, stitching and automation is intense even though all juniors learn these tools in university. Microsoft lock-in is just crippling.

Agreed. Power BI seems cheaper than Tableau or other options, but you end up having to get licenses for everyone just to let them view content.

Ah, the even more confusing language. Just give me C# or a decent Python experience. Power Query is terrible.

May I ask what is your issue with PowerQuery? I found it extremely useful tool for transforming the data and display it the way I want see.