I agree. The u-point technology is really about tones as they move away from the selected point. I think about it more as a local change tool than a global one, though you can get a more global effect to some extent. However, as you move further away from the control point itself, there is a drop in intensity of change, as well as a broadening of the selected tone. This is quite different from a global mask where all areas of the image with that specific tone are effected. I see the u-point stuff as more local than global, and I think that is what it was designed for. However, if you couple the "painting" on a layer mask, and vary the opacity, you can do some global changes, but then select just how much of what you want effected.
On balance, it does take some getting used to. I use it with Color Efex Pro 3.0, Viveza and even Dfine (NR tool), plus their Sharpener Pro plug-in. Each behaves a bit differently. The u-point technology is pretty powerful, and Nik uses it in different ways in each app, which requires one to think about what they are applying and how. It does become a bit addicting with respect to retouching, and that totally slows workflow, as I get tempted to tweak just one more little thing here and there on each image. Great results, but it has cratered me a few times when I realize how much time I wind up spending on the retouches that I may never have bothered with before. Bit of a two-edged sword....faster and more flexible than some other tools, but that leads to wanting to apply it more often than one may have thought about in adjustments before, thus taking more total time for all the changes.
LJ