I love Silver Effex and Color Effex and use them almost daily but they seem to work for me in their current form.
Like many others I was delighted to hear that DXO bought the Nik plugins and planned to improve them. Like many others I expected to pay for them (though I paid for the set in the pre-Google days). Like many others I had great expectations that the paid version would have some real improvements. Like many others, I am a bit disappointed that there are really no significant improvements at all, as best I can tell from reading things on the web. For starters, a targeted adjustment tool would be a welcome addition; it is one of the best features of Lightroom and Photoshop. I could go on and there will doubtless be others who disagree, but with all the reported financial issues, perhaps they are hoping for a cash infusion to get the ball rolling. I wish them well but am not prepared to pay for the current offering.