I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.
> why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop?
You aren’t under any obligation to continue learning until you’re done with all cards. The number of cards to learn is customizable.
> why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card?
It’s not that hard, but I guess it makes the learning curve a bit harder. Why it’s done this way? I guess to provide more flexibility. Is flexibility lacking in modern apps? Yes, absolutely. So in that sense this is indeed a dated feature.
> why does the app cost $25 on iOS?
Why is it “dated”? Also - why not? You’re free to use free desktop and web versions. Paying for ios app is a way to support the developer.
> why can't I execute JavaScript
Dunno about this one. What’s your use case? Can’t theg plugins cover it?
Has the "ease hell" issue been solved, maybe with the new scheduler? Or do you still need to stay away from two of the answer option (easy, hard) and only use the other two (good, again)?
Honest question, I haven't kept up with Anki, but just saw that a new scheduler (v3) seems to be default now.
