Makes sense! Presence, notifications, and viewing of devices (via dashboards) in the app are things we have been told will be coming. The dashboard can really do most/all of what you ask for--arm/disarm Hubitat Safety Monitor, change location mode, provide tap/click interface for buttons and switches, etc. Hubitat doesn't have "built-in" support for scenes/groups (EDIT: if you're reading this now, this feature has since been added), but it's nothing you can't do yourself with a virtual switch or button and an automation of your choice (e.g., one of the stock lighting apps if you want to turn lights on/off with a button controller, or a Rule Machine child app to do something more customized). Unless I'm missing something, I don't think the dashboard has a good way to modify thermostats right now. Both ActionTiles and SharpTools.io have good ways of doing this, in my opinion (and by the way, if you don't mind cloud-dependency, SharpTools is great).
I do have to agree a bit on the dashboard, though. It could use the help of a UI/UX professional to help it look and work better. A bigger problem with the dashboard, in my opinion, is that dashboards have to be set up manually. In ST, you can at least use the "Things" page in the app to see an alphabetical listing and get quick control of your devices--no extra work required; in Hubitat, you'd have to manually create dashboards with all your devices, update them when you add new ones, etc. I think this is why so many people "cheat" and just use the web UI that wasn't really intended for this purpose--and I'm not saying ST does a good job here (see again: ActionTiles), but it's at least something to meet occasional needs for manual control. I don't think Hubitat will ever move to be like ST, and I'm not sure what a good solution would be (maybe a default/"everything" dashboard that keeps up with new device changes and provides quick viewing/control of the most common/likely attribute for that device? but again, Hubitat doesn't have a good way to tell since there's no UI code in drivers like ST has for DTHs).
That being said, they've also indicated that their focus is on automation--and really, that's why I got the hub, too. I don't want to manually control things often, and when I do, I even more rarely want to use my phone or a computer. My lights turn on based on motion and time of day, and I have wall controls (technically not Hubitat since I have them paired natively to Hue, but I'm also setting up some Pico remotes for similar purposes) for other circumstances. The dashboard is nice for seeing things at a glance and occasional usage, but I'd hate to need to use anything--an app, a dashboard, or whatever--for control since I could already manually control things without an HA system like Hubitat at all. (And I'd imagine I'd feel this way even more strongly if I were somebody's husband, housemate, or similar--bad enough when I mess things up for myself. )