I've never had any issues at the DMV. Never taken me more than 30 minutes, people at the counters were not rude or anything. Some states just run their services better than others.

The density of the local population is a big factor. When I first moved to California a visit to the DMV was a casual affair, 40years on it's a nightmare, as the population as grown to unbearable levels. Getting an appointment is a nightmare in it's self.
Renewal can be done online but a visit to the California DMV office, "Forget about it" Over 70 you have to renew every five years and take a written test with an in person visit.
My wife's license expired early this month and has been extended for a year. Heaven knows what it will take to get a "Real ID" a moot point at this time.
Too many personal horror stories involving the California DMV to go into.

I had an appointment for the "Real ID" in April, which has now been put back until August. There are two DMV's nearby, so just chose the one which is less busy, and is in a slightly nicer area with a less sketchy looking clientele. The staff are ok, not rude, but not too nice either. It's always a "hurry up and wait" situation there.

In Saskatchewan they made it easy; every insurance office deals in SGI auto insurance so practically any neighbourhood insurance place can license you and your vehicles, take pics for your license etc. They're all nice, and there's a bowl of mints on the counter.

I think my main gripe, is why on earth do I even need to go to a building and join the Cheese counter queue anyway? Not once did I ever have to visit anywhere in person to get the UK photo license. Scan an image/upload a photo, fill in about 4 fields on an online form, automate a series of checks and balances, bingo. I can at least do that for the annual Registration I guess.

The visits to the USCIS building in North Atlanta is about as much fun.

But how often were you ever asked to produce your licence in the UK to prove your age or identity? In my case I know the former was "zero", and the latter was, er, not sure. If it wasn't zero it was pretty close to zero. In the US your DL is a de facto identification card, and with "Real ID" in progress, making reasonably sure that the data is accurate is more important than ever.

I thik my driving license was used as much in the UK as in the UK. Buying alcohol, opening a bank account, notarizing documents, getting state benefits and so on. The main difference was health insurance. Everything else was pretty much the same. Especially after the photo ID licenses became more of the norm. However the US is about 30 years behind the UK in technology in many respects. Also there is not a centralized database that can be used for passports and driving licenses. In the US the population is very willing to let Facebook digitize and match photos but not the Government. Just a very different culture.

I was never "carded" for alcohol purchases in the UK, though passing 6ft around my 14th birthday may have had something to do with that, and buying alcohol at age 16 certainly wasn't a problem. My only bank accounts were with institutions where I had held an account since I was a child, so I was never asked for ID. I opened several credit card accounts, but they were all by mail, and there was no way to "show" my DL. I don't think I ever had anything notarized in the UK, and I certainly didn't get any "state benefits", so I can't offhand think of an occasion when I was asked to show my DL .... I think when I got a London Transport Photo card, would have been one occasion.

I also do not recollect using my DL for ID, not something I carried around with me.

I've been asked twice this week for proof of identity. Probably a good thing in this age of fraud and identity theft.