> and the thing we’ll never get back was the cultural buy-in and network effects.

You must not be using Spotify the way I do.

I access my friends' playlists and they access mine. Spotify lets you do exactly what you're describing, only faster and easier.

For a lot of people, they use Spotify specifically because of the network effects, because that's where people can find their playlists. Because everyone's culturally bought-in to the idea that Spotify is where you share that.

> I make an effort to use Spotify to find and listen to albums, but it wasn’t built for this

It literally was built for this. If you aren't using shared playlists, then you have only yourself to blame. Not Spotify.