No problem, all contributions and points of view are appreciated 🙂
Well it all depends on what you're expecting from an Asset Browser. I have the impression you were happy with the previous Content Browser, which allowed to search on the drive like an integrated file explorer ? I was not, because I already store all my assets in a structured way on my library drive, and whether I'm looking for something in the explorer or in C4D, the process is the same ( cumbersome and slow).
On the other hand, the new Asset Browser allow me to tags items on top of the basic category storage, to sort items by whatever criteria you want, and to insert the objects in a really interactive and smart way, wheter be it a mesh, a HDRI, a light or a node group. And Cinema does it all rather quickly, much more than manually searching in folders or doing a Windows search ( I can't say for MacOS ).
But the names are kind of hashed and the (flat) file structure is unreadable outside of Cinema 4D, yes. I guess it's a technical requirement for databases to be fast, because it's exactly the same deal for Quixel Megascans, and it doesn't prevent me from using it extensively for years. Indeed I have a good amount of textures and assets that I'll continue to store in a classic way, stuff I use often and that I'll always need whatever the software I'm using, but for specific needs in the context of Cinema 4D project, the Asset Browser can do a really good job. ( and could do an even better job if some assets weren't so static )
Did you try Connecter ? It seems a perfect fit for your needs, it combines assets storage in folders ( with human readable names ) with metadata stored in some external files. The software manages the metadata but the folders are still accessible and usable with the file explorer.
Yes I used this function in the past but it was slow and it tended to slow down Cinema when importing stuff from other scenes or creating materials. I think it was checking too often texture links. I haven't tired the feature on the latest versions, maybe it's better now.