Yeah I always thought canisters were the best all around machines. You have everything with you and if you want to go from carpet to hard floors, just pop off the power nozzle and add floor brush. Cleaning above floor, just pop off the wand and you have the attachments, or add wands for up high cleaning.
Uprights can do some of this but aren't as easy to maneuver in hose mode unless you use a long extension hose and let the unit stay in one place. Or the older pan converters that had rollers so you could pull the upright by the hose, although they were a bit likely to all over still. And of course the Kirby setup too which was basically converted to a canister but more work to set up.
Cordless vacuums are advancing - and many have a nice assortment of attachments now to clean everything. Still not a huge fan of battery power, but they have advanced far ahead of the old Black and Decker Dustbusters.
I still see in many homes for sale with all hard laminate or tile, the bagless uprights.
There just isn't a huge selection of canisters in stores. If they do have any it tends to be just one or two models, usually small and bagless and no power nozzle. Though I have seen a Bissell power nozzle model at a Walmart in my area. And they used to sell the Eureka models with a small power nozzle too when they were still sold.
