Rob,
Your issues are valid concerns. I have mostly carpet throughout the house - only the bathroom, kitchen and front entrance do not and since they are all located very close to each other, I vacuum them at the same time and then switch over to the power nozzle so it isn't a big deal that the floor nozzle does not store on the machine.
There is no step on quick release for the power nozzle - you do have to bend over and push the release button. Again, not a big concern for me. However you have the same problem with the Rainbow when you want to switch from the floor tool back to the power nozzle as there is no quick release on the floor tool
I would rather have the tools store on the main unit than on the wands as well but then that would make the main unit even larger in size and it is quite large as it is now.
I do like how much easier it is to set up, use and put away compared to the Rainbow or any water vacuum. Also it rolls over floor/carpet thresholds much better than the Rainbow. With the Rainbow I have to lift it up over the threshold.
I do like how quiet it is, even on high speed. I think having 8 speeds however is over doing it a wee bit. I vacuumed the entire main floor using the power nozzle, floor/carpet nozzle, dusting brush and Sidekick and used only the highest speed or the Auto function. When it was on Auto I only ever noticed it being on speed 4 or sometimes going down to 3 or 2 if I pushed too hard on the dusting brush.
I still have not figured out how to make best use of the scent chamber. Just putting the Gain beads in the chamber did not seem to do anything because the beads are at one end of the chamber but the air that is forced into the chamber is at the other end and exhausts straight through so it never passes over the beads. I wish I knew what Aerus had in mind for the fragrance and shape of it to be used.
I checked the bag chamber and did not see any dust due to bag leakage. I'll just have to wait until at least I get a full bag to see how it performs.
I noticed also that the outside diameter of the hose is slightly larger than that of the Rainbow and it is only a couple of inches shorter.
The rubber wheels are very nice. It moves very smoothly on floors and carpet and I think the rubber wheels would be less likely to scratch the floors.
I do like having a cord rewind again. It isn't a big deal with the Rainbow because I would just coil up the cord and hang it over the floor nozzle on the rear of the machine but sometimes the floor nozzle would drop off the machine and thus so did the cord.
Overall I like the Platinum very much....so much so that I am going to be selling both my Rainbow and Filter Queen.
Gary