Endless issues with content types and document libraries

Like most system admins, I know that if the solution isn't straightforward, then my users wont use it.  And worse, will decide that SharePoint is not a good product.

I am trying to build a branded set of content types (most Word based templates) in our Office 365 tenant so that my user base will create standard documents with appropriate metadata.  As an example, in the content type publishing hub I have created a 'Policy' content type with the following metadata added to the default Title column.  

Service                 - Managed Metadata

Owner                  - People or Group

Reviewer              - People or Group

Review Date        - Date

Review Schedule - Choice

Review Due         - Calculated from the above 2 fields

Active                  - Yes/No (Required)

This is published and my document library is configured to use it.  I also have major and minor versions enabled, with approval required to publish a new version - these are policies after all so I dont think thats an unreasonable expectation.  I have created a Word template file with these fields inserted in a document properties, and that generally works fine when published from the content hub, though that's another story how I did that as it involved creating a document library on my Content Publishing Hub, loading in the content type and editing the template there, exporting it and then reloading it into the content type.

From this point onwards, considering that the principles behind doing this are pretty standard and have been a feature of SharePoint for a fair while now, it seems ridiculous how complex and unusable this quickly gets.  I can fight my way through it but for my users its past the point where they are prepared to even give it a try. 

The issues

• If I set the document library to open files in the browser, the online version of Word compresses empty space down so the document loses its WYSIWYG view; most branding is not shown such as images in headers.  They can at least edit the text of the document.
• In the Online version of Word, the inserted Document properties dont allow you to edit them at all so the user has to close the document again to get at the metadata in SharePoint.  Since there is a required field the document is left as Checked Out until the user fills in the Active field (and potentially all the other fields) so they then have to manually Check it in before they can continue.
• If a user hits the Edit in Word option in the online Word app, the document opens and we can at least see it properly displayed.  However, it then complains that there is required metadata so opens the new SharePoint properties panel, and hey presto, that feature is currently broken.  I have a call logged with MS support who have escalated that to the development team.  Gobsmacked that a simple (and new feature) can be broken by a new release and no one at MS seemed to know until I logged a call.
• Since the expected method isn't working at the moment, I tried a work around by going to the File/Info screen in Word and selecting edit all properties.  There's my Active field, but its showing 'Yes', and still highlighted with a red box around it indicating a problem.  I have to change it to No, and then back to Yes to get it to set correctly.  Not exactly intuitive.
• My inserted SharePoint properties are showing in the document, good start, but for some reason Word has decided to display them in a red font.  I have checked and rechecked the template and it clearly has a black font for that field.  So my user now has to correct that.
• Some metadata can be easily edited in the inserted Document Property, but some can't.  Dates, and Text are easy, users don't look up but if you type the user name correctly then it will work.  Managed metadata, no chance, you have to go to either the File/Info page or in the SharePoint library again to set that.
• My next idea, was to miss out the online version of Word altogether and set the library to pen with the client application directly.  Works fine with an existing document but is pretty useless creating a new one.  If I select 'Policy Document' from the new menu in the document library then the template opens nicely in Word, but seems to have no idea that its actually of that content type, and doesn't know where it needs to be saved even.  I first have to click Save As, browse through to the Document library and then save it.  At which point I can start to edit the metadata as I did previously.  Again, completely unintuitive so my users wont do it.

I have no chance of getting my user base to work like this, and I don't honestly blame them.  If MS could actually make all this work properly then SharePoint would have the potential to be a killer Document Management System.  Instead, you have to ignore all these features, and simply use document libraries with a few added meta data columns to have any hope of it being usable.  I have been fighting this on and off for nearly a year now, every time there's an update I hope something will improve, and sometimes it does (such as the SharePoint properties panel until they later broke it) but its a long way from being an enterprise ready DMS.  And I have used them in the past so know well how it should and could work.  The depressing thing is that, as a SharePoint consultant and evangelist, this makes my life much more difficult than it is meant to be.  Watching the last Vegas key note nearly made me weep, all this excitement about SharePoint spaces which I cant see any use for whatsoever, the demo where he was wearing the headset on stage and wanted to explore the virtual catalog was farcical.  He had to literally walk towards the object to zoom in and even needed to ask his colleague on stage to make sure he didn't bump into the stage set.  I laughed so much I nearly wet myself.  But why waste resources developing that if the basics aren't working properly. If MS dont want us to use these features, then take them out.  But if they are in there please make them work properly.

Rant over, but if anyone has achieved similar things successfully I would love to hear how you did it