First, I hate Apple nearly as much as MS, and I am defending the common experience rather than company.

The dock does what it's designed to do; "properly" needs to be defined. It is crappy, limited software and since it is mouse-oriented, slow and inefficient and merely one way to do things like open apps. Use spotlight or the app switcher with the keyboard instead and save time. (Spotlight has its own problems but is still much better than the dock!)

If the red button doesn't close the window, the app isn't using the developer interface guidelines. Also, try Command-W, it might work better for you.

Also, switching desktops (screens as you said) is trackpad oriented and one smooth gesture , no delay. Using a mouse is more clicky, yes, but normally no delay. Keyboard commands might be what you want here? Also, are you using oddball apps that are fighting the OS?

Regarding your sample set of experiences, I believe you, but trust that my sample set is unusually large due to doing user support for a long time, and few users with a healthy typical install of the OS overall have those complaints:

• setting default apps normally works consistently
• red button closes window on mainstream macOS apps, rarely otherwise
• dragging windows is pretty smooth between monitors (I have to demonstrate this after showing people how to arrange monitors)