This is not an attempt to get you to change your mind. I am actually commiserating with you and sharing a related experience.
I felt exactly the way you did a long time ago - for the Borland product. When Paradox for DOS was out there, it was the best thing going. Then Windows happened. (For parallels, think of the similar implications from the Forrest Gump movie...). When Windows happened, Paradox for Windows came out and Access was its competitor. I had both products in-house for a while before I finally gave up. My conclusion so many years ago was that Paradox for Windows had (as we say in the Deep South...) screwed the pooch whereas Access correctly knew to "get out of the way" of the folks who wanted to go techie with it.
I know that Access is a pain in the patootie for a lot of things, and I wish it did more in some fields such as security. But I've seen too many products that claim to be the best thing since sliced bread as database products. Most of them don't even have a horse in the race. More like a donkey, except that the comparison is unfair to donkeys.
Seriously, if you feel that Access is wrong for you, by all means go for something else. Just understand that some of us have learned to make Access good enough via various precautionary measures that it gets the job done.
I'll draw an analogy from the real world. I'm an organist. Worked my way through college via a different kind of keyboard than one with letters and numbers on it. I had an instrument at home and it was time to upgrade. I had two choices, which I will name as "L" and "T" (don't want to offend the manufacturers here). The "L" was the epitome of musical automation. Joe Schmuckadelli could play it and have it sound OK. The "T" was not so heavily automated. You actually needed to know something to make it sound good.
The problem was that if you were capable of playing the keyboard by music and formal training rather than by ear, you had to turn off 30%+ of the "L" instrument to get that automation out of the way. When you did, fully HALF of the sounds on the accompaniment keyboard (which formal organists call the "Great Manual") were unavailable. On the "T" you had less automation and had to do a bit more, but you never had to give up the majority of the instrument to do anything.
I find your comments akin to the way I felt, because my mother had owned two "L" organs herself, then I bought one for myself. We had always had an "L" in the house. A lightning strike to my main power line fried my "L" and forced my hand. When I made the comparison, the "T" did more even though the "L" had more bells and whistles. Access forces you to do more because the automation is not the strongest you've ever seen, but their competitors don't give you the ability to do anything else.
So just remember, you can get the database tools to do a lot for you - but what if they don't do the right thing? Sure, Access wizards are as dumb as a box of rocks - but they offer GREAT starting points for implementing event code as well as simple reports and forms. You just have to go back and customize their outputs a little. The other man's grass is always greener - at least until he rolls the joint and smokes it.