Hi Margaret,
It is useful knowing what the arguments come down to, and from what you say, there are only two.
Argument 1.
"a chromosome browser exposes actual SNPs (“snips”) for your matches. Ancestry has to be really thoughtful about doing that. They have to decide if that makes sense. Ultimately, people’s privacy is more important than a chromosome browser"
1. So we are asked to believe that Ancestry cares more about privacy and ethics than do FTDNA, DNAPainter, Gedmatch, My Heritage, 23andMe? I don't believe that. Maybe they care more about possible litigation I guess, but those other companies seem to have found a way.
2. If that was really the issue, wouldn't allowing the data to be downloaded create the same problems? Sure, it is someone else's choice and not Ancestry's direct doing, but would they have no responsibility?
3. And offering a browser as an option surely overcomes those problems, especially if it was opt-in.
Argument 2
"Ancestry offers two alternatives"
As you point out, two of the tools are pretty useless (Search, DNA Circles), one is OK as a start (Shared matches), but only takes us so far.
I first tested with FTDNA because my reading suggested they were the best company despite having a smaller database, but when I tested with Ancestry, I took out a 6 month subscription because I had read about DNA circles and mirror trees, two tools that I thought offered some real ways forward. Like you I found circles useless and mirror trees likewise - I think you need far more relatives to have tested for these to work, and not that many people here in Australia have tested. Even shared matches I have not found very useful. In fact, I had one crucially important match on Ancestry that helped me, and that has been all, and even that required transfer to Gedmatch so I could compare it with people who had tested on FTDNA. There is probably more good information there, but I don't know how to get at it.
I am probably a cynic, but I can't help wondering if Ancestry avoids giving these tools so the main ways to use matches (links to tree, DNA circles and Mirror trees) are ones that require us to take out a subscription. Thus a DNA test can be made to most likely lead to a subscription, and more income. Yes, I'm a cynic.
So I don't buy their arguments and I remain very disappointed with Ancestry.