I've had pretty much the same experience.
I've had two cats.
One was a short-haired, sleek black cat. The shedding was never terrible. I mean, yeah, we'd brush her during the parts of the year when she shed the most, but having to spend five minutes brushing your cat every once in a while is hardly a raw deal. She went outside to go to the bathroom, knew how to take care of herself, never made any of us die or gave anybody problems (except people who recently moved in who were already allergic to cats, but again, people can be allergic to dogs and other animals too so that's hardly an issue), and she groomed herself well to the point where we let her on all the furniture and it never made anything gross or particularly hairy.
The other was this giant goofball of a fluffy long-haired cat, probably part Maine Coon. He liked to lie down in sinks and do other silly things. He had a lot more fur, so more shedding on average, but it was probably LESS of a problem with him because it tended to just come out in tufts, which is easier to manage than sporadic hairs.
I've also known many other cats, none of which had the kinds of problems that are being mentioned.
Comparatively speaking, I've known dogs, and they were all nice dogs, but I wouldn't want them getting on furniture that I also lie down on, because, well, dogs just don't keep themselves quite as clean as cats do.
Cats and dogs are just different. They do different things, are intelligent in different ways, and have different strong/weak points about them. I personally don't know if I'd own a dog, but I don't have anything against them.