Very true. Sometimes I think Microsoft really shoots themselves in the foot by not rapidly improving the performance of excel (GPU support would be killer). I really think many of the upstarts like Tableau would be completely sidelined by a higher performance excel with a few other features. I think to some degree the existence of PowerBI is basically Microsoft acknowledging they cannot iterate Excel fast enough to compete and thus need a fresh start. That said, I find it's one of the tools I miss the most when not on Windows.
excel is a client for the database, a very advanced client