Director, iOS and the (real) apps development cul-de-sac

Question

Hi there.
I was a long time Director developer and I tried D12 to give it a shot with iOS app development.
After 2.5 months of research, an app submitted to Apple (still "in review"), another in development and a 3D game in its first design I have to summarize my experience.
1.
Developing simple apps and games seems very simple and easy.
Let's say that if the user don't have to interact with the keyboard, or use UI controls, app development is fluid.
2.
If you have to develop something with (even) a little user interface, you get crazy.
You have to re-invent the wheel and in doing it you're doing it wrong.
I developed a simple app, an app that does only one thing, but it does it in a very good way.
I started developing this app because there is no an app that does this thing, today.
First prototype? 4 hours.
Now I'm stuck in handling UI and UX, and I'm going mad.
There's no way to re-produce iOS controls (like radio buttons, checkboxes and fields) without appearing "cheap".
If the user have to insert something with the keyboard you get mad.
If you have the crazy idea to create a scrollable list (with selection) the performances become as slow as hell and the user responsiveness goes away.
I'm so so so sad for this.
I know Director Team is doing something great to bring us Director developers the possibility to easly port games from Shockwave to iOS.
But if you want to develop a real application (or something like that) you actually have no chances to pass Apple quality control.
That's it.
I just wanted to share my feelings with you.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Let me get this straight: I use Director since version 4, I always though that it's an incredible tool for multimedia development.
The dream was (just) using it to deliver iOS apps that can be a little better that the ones done with PhoneGap.
But...
The fact that it's so damn hard to put an app into the iTunes App Store (try not to develop "ad hoc" but for the store) that I think Adobe is just paying a low level rate to the remaining developers, I think that thereare two left, three maybe, and they have to do everything, so they don't write manuals or notes.
Or they just develop Director in their spare time.
Whatever you're doing, I respect you. Just as much I don't respect Adobe, who's gonna charge us for this not-enough-featuring (anymore) product.
One example: if you compile your iOS app for youriPad with the "Otto.app" template there's nothing wrong, but that template is outdated since may 1, 2013, so you cannot use it to upload your app to the App Store.
I'm trying to change all values, one by one, of the .plist included, but no luck for 72 hours (something like 50 attempts), and I'm so mad at it that I'm thinking about pulling the power cable on my (quite simple) project.