Podcasts on desktop suck, half-baked, and unusable

[Man-In-Brown]

I'm REALLY trying to use Spotify for podcasts but it is a horrible experience. Truly terrible, esp on Desktop. 

• There is no feed to see recently unplayed episodes. This is available via the "New Episodes" playlist on mobile phones but is missing on Desktops. Again, making the whole podcasts useless b/c I don't use my phone when working.
• Sync between mobile and desktop apps is COMPLETELY broken. Episodes that I listen from beginning to the end are marked as "Played" on the phone but not synced to Desktop. (Tried all the usual clean install / cache clear / etc.)
• No way to ignore episodes I'm not interested in -- it sits in the "New Episodes" forever or I have to mark it as Played even though I just want to ignore it.
• Other devices like Tesla media player don't allow selecting speeds (but this is fine because I can use Bluetooth)

Admittedly, I can't switch because other services are worse for music, but I'm gone the moment they're improved. My loyalty to Spotify has been wearing off quite quickly.

Spotify Desktop Version: Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon) / 1.2.12.902.g1924b088

Spotify iOS Version: 8.8.40.462

Example Podcast for sync issues: Today, Explained (but is happening with all podcasts)