Umbrella organizations, as Tenshinaikidoka mentioned, for which I have been given the following information (I may be wrong):
There is Ki Society (which is the type of aikido I believe Seagal refers to as 'dancing'); there is Aikikai (includes various styles developed by various students of O Sensei after they left the nest, so to speak); and there is Yoshinkan, also developed by a student of O Sensei. Ki Society I know very little about. What I know of Yoshinkan is, in the end, Aikikai and Yoshinkan end up in the same place, it's how they arrive there that differs (as a friend of mine put it after we'd been to a demonstration of Yoshinkan, 'Aikikai starts off fluffy and ends up soft. Yoshinkan starts off rigid and ends up soft').
(I'm omitting Tomiki which is competition aikido which O Sensei did not want for aikido.)
Now, everything that I've read that Carlos has been talking about upstream is very much against O Sensei's 'Way of Spiritual Harmony'. Aikido is about love, not about being rough. It takes years of practice to learn the techniques in such a way as to apply them in a practical manner, and in a way that DOESN'T hurt your opponent (unless absolutely necessary). What I'm hearing is that it should be rough, and if it isn't, it isn't MARTIAL.
We had an interesting class yesterday. Several techniques were demonstrated that are no longer "officially" taught that would have satisfied anyone's lust for MARTIAL. I, for one, am thankful that they aren't among the testing requirements.
A lot of techniques can be harmful, which is why care is taken learning to give and receive. Shihonage, for example, done correctly on an opponent who doesn't know how to protect themselves, can break the wrist, and dislocate the elbow and the shoulder, all in one swift move. The attack 'kubishime' - all you have to do is move your hand upwards from the lapel a few inches and you have a classic neck snap. That'll stop your opponent - permanently. Gokyo pin - broken wrist. Aiki otoshi - broken neck (nearly broke mine the first time I took ukemi for that - never again!).
In answer to Carlos' other complaint about weapons, he does have a point: many dojos don't start weapons practice until five minutes before the first black belt test that requires them. And even then, many examiners don't bother testing weapons because of the sheer weight of numbers in the testing pool.
We are fortunate in my dojo to have an excellent weapons master and that our sensei has included weapons requirements for every kyu test (5th and onwards. We have an unofficial '6th kyu' test that doesn't require weapons.).
Some of Carlos' complaints can be attributed to the poor quality of the instructor. Because there are so many Federations in the US that have political and ideological differences, there seems to be no consistency over teaching methods and requirements. This results in a lot of inconsistent training (I've watched some YouTube demos that have left me speechless in dismay, and in the case of one ukemi 'how to' from Florida - speechless in horror).
There are a lot of bad teachers of aikido. There are a lot of good teachers of aikido. Sadly, access to the good ones may not be available to those who live in smaller centres where selection is limited.
That's why going to seminars is so very important: it gives you the opportunity to experience a variety of techniques and teachers from all over the world and also opens up access to the various lineages and styles from O Sensei's students, who, sadly, are dying off.
Understand also that in Japan martial arts are like hockey or baseball here: it's accessible to every child and they grow up with it much the same way as we do our sports here in North America (as is soccer, cricket, and other sports elsewhere in the world). Most North Americans come late to martial arts, so we're always in a hurry to get to the 'end'.
What I've learned is that aikido is more than just learning the techniques. I had an instructor once tell me, very early in my training, that my techniques were terrible [at that time I had only been practicing for about a year] - but my aikido was good. It took me a long time to figure out what he meant - how could my aikido be good if my techniques were not? was a real puzzler. But I've come to understand what he meant.
Aikido isn't just about techniques - techniques just teach you how to move. It's the practice over time that teaches you how to feel - the spiritual part of 'aikido' - which seems, from my reading of Carlos' comments, an aspect he doesn't appear to be interested in. One of my teachers calls this feeling 'the strength of no strength'. How do you achieve that? It can't be taught, it can only be learned. Does that take away from the MARTIAL aspect of aikido? In my opinion, not at all. It's what makes critics of aikido say it's 'fake', when it is really a subtle combination of mechanics, the laws of physics and 'feeling'. Aikido - the 'way of spiritual harmony' - is aptly named.
Miss or misunderstand one component, aikido becomes dissatisfying, inadequate, not MARTIAL enough.
I think this is what is missing in your training, Carlos: the fundamental understanding of why aikido was developed and what O Sensei was looking for while he was developing it.