I’d go all-in and get an Ultra, except for a couple nuancesYou hit on a few of the many little items that differentiate Apple’s smart watch approach to supporting fitness versus a focused fitness-first device. The AW can do a lot of this, but there are a many things it struggles to do well. IMHO, Apple would have to massively beef up its native workout app, give it one or two more hard buttons (option to repurpose the crown & side button during workouts), and massively enhance the mobile app. They still would have the gap of no web tier and the automated integration that brings, but other competing products without web tiers are already out there.
Apple Watch sub-optimizations relative to a pure bread device like a Coros, Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Wahoo, etc. (This focuses on Apple’s native apps and sets aside the “there’s an app for that,” because that is actually part of the AW problem.)
Odd “segments†& “laps†splits data structureSwimming cannot manually start & stop interval lapsNo ecosystem of adjacent products & features – highly fragmented app environmentLimited vertical platform – no web and basic phone UILimited screen and data field tailoringNo performance analyticsNo accessory device support except through 3rd party appsNo “Daily Report†type feeds (possible “with an app for that,†but even more fragmented)Touchscreen UI accidents - touch just does not work as well and easily as hard button watchesData sharing semi-manualBattery lifeNot really always-onBasic & tedious structured workouts - doing this on the watch is a royal PITAActivity start countdownHeavy - its about 50% heavier than most race-oriented multisport devicesNo mapping
This is just my short list, off the top of mind, from my experiences using almost every generation of AW alongside Garmin, Suunto, and Wahoo watches.