[krapp]

I think they don't want to be intimidated by complexity and don't want to have to pay someone more to deal with it for them in the future. Typically they want to be able to administrate the site themselves, and they can do that through web forms easily enough.

[X4]

What you describe can easily be solved with Google Fusion Tables and a tiny script in your favorite server-side language.

[krapp]

You're right - I think the problem is mostly one of marketing the alternatives.