I agree. I find Latex very limiting, in the sense that anything that falls outside of its (admittedly extensive) library of functionality is nigh impossible to do. Latex has a system of "environments" and a box model that satisfies the basic use case of spitting out a nicely typeset article, but it's not the tool I would turn to if I wanted to precisely justify a paragraph underneath an image (the above comment is correct: look to InDesign or something similar).

Latex (or more specifically, TeX) was groundbreaking for its kerning and typeface support. It still has the most extensive system for unambiguously typesetting complex mathematical equations. It appeals to a certain kind of person who wants to have a canonical source in plaintext controlling layout. But you're kidding yourself to say that it is the most flexible and powerful tool for typesetting on the market today.