[apancik]

Excel has some functionality that Google Sheets are missing that is used in this particular use case. More specifically, it has a primitive called Table. After you set up your data as Tables, you can then reference whole columns as Table1[Column1] and it also fills your formulas down as you add more rows.

I don't want to defend Excel too much, as it is not ideal in many ways. Nevertheless, over time, I found myself using it more and more to prototype and visualize data. With magic features like Pivot charts, Flash fill, and Data tables you can hammer out a one-off "app" in a matter of minutes.

[adepressedthrow]

Interesting. It definitely seems like that would fix a lot of my issues, which prompts the question of why Google hasn't built this functionality

[ghaff]

Google has, for better or worse (and I'd argue usually for better), created a 90-95% product across Word/Sheets/Slides. Every now and then I run into limitations but the sparseness is mostly a win. That said, every now and then I run into a limitation (perhaps especially with Excel) that I have to either work around or use the Microsoft product.