so on top of having all the same issues a bunch of others seem to be experiencing, I seem to be having another and am wondering if anyone else is.

THE ISSUE:  no photos are recorded to the SD card in palm launch or rc gesture mode.  It launches, I can use the force to control it, it flashes its lights just as described, heck it even gives me the countdown and says its snapping a pic if im using the rc.  But no pictures are recorded.  it records photos and video totally normally in all other modes, which by the way I'm super impressed with for such a tiny drone.  Actually I'm ridiculously impressed with it in general and think its totally amazing, I'm just super dissapointed with all the issues wish it functioned as advertised.

I found that happening also. I put the SD Card in my computer and they were there. Then when I put the card back into my Spark, the pictures were there. It's weird. Hopefully DJI is working on a fix for this in future updates.