I hope your experience is at one end of the spectrum (and not the other).
Sorry for the "dump" but this forum has been through these issues in literally exhaustive details over the years past, with the "outsiders" pushing PG to change, and the "insiders" pushing back -- by making the formatting problems even worse. This forum then went quiet, presumably because everyone who had been pushing for change has given up on PG. I have a number of books in the works, but I really don't know what to do with them -- working with PG is simply too painful, too insulting, and one can submit a beautifully, and simply, formatted book to PG and then what comes out of their "sausage maker" software for you to read on your EPUB or MOBI device ends up being a formatting disappointment. Last time I checked there was still some people interested in tackling the formatting problems inside the DP hierarchy [but DP has its own set of "High Priest/High Priestess" problems too] and DP has more leverage with PG than individuals [since so many of the new books come from DP] so many check in with what the DP people interested in the formatting problems are doing. I would love someone to tackle figuring out a "work around" that would allow us to make and distribute beautifully formatted books to ebook readers, but too much has been going on in my life to tackle that project right now.