When I started to track my finances I quickly ran into limitations with just a spreadsheet, and also didn't feel like any of the existing options fit my need. I agree that for most (all?) people this level of detailed tracking is probably too much, but it doesn't take that much time for me.
I ended up making my own app https://github.com/VMelnalksnis/Gnomeshade. I also felt similarly regarding accounts, so I split transactions into two parts - transfers and purchases. That allows to handle multiple currencies, and handle categorization separately from accounts. I haven't looked into suggestions like you mentioned, I went with trying to parse receipts for my most common purchases.
I created https://github.com/VMelnalksnis/Gnomeshade for myself, transactions have separate transfers which are between accounts, and purchases, which allows to categorize your spending. This setup also allows to easily handle multiple currencies.
I ended up making my own app https://github.com/VMelnalksnis/Gnomeshade. I also felt similarly regarding accounts, so I split transactions into two parts - transfers and purchases. That allows to handle multiple currencies, and handle categorization separately from accounts. I haven't looked into suggestions like you mentioned, I went with trying to parse receipts for my most common purchases.