It doesn't monitor humidity and temperature outside.
Not directly no. But when it's on WiFi, it pulls this information for the area via the internet.
Many of the other items on the list you already mentioned, and even seemed to discover they had plans to support some of it down the road.
I'm still happy with mine. It does more then the thermostat that was in place when I moved in. The old one had a fancy mercury based switch, connected to a coiled spring that was adjusted with a plastic lever. Oh, and a heat/cool switch along with a separate mercury based thermometer.
Does the Nest do everything? Nope. But like I said when I bought it, I wanted to support the concept as well as the current device. They had to start somewhere, and no product launches on day one with every feature in the world.
I'm not quite sure why you equate not wanting to add a photo display, clock or other features discussed in that blog article as cluelessness. To me, they were making the statement that they subscribe to the ideal of simplicity, something I'm trying to hold myself to as well these days.
Must be that time of the month to bash products?