Real applications aren't simple to create, but none of you criticisms are really about Access , they are about poor application development. The reason you find the 'look what I made' Access apps is usually because when the user asked for a tool to enable them to do their job, they probably got told 'oh you don't want to do it like that' and then promised a world beating system that they know will be approximately as rubbish as the Access one, but cost 50 times more and be delivered in 3 years time, if you are lucky.