Photoshop: Better tools for streak repair

Photoshop needs a better tool for removing scratches and streaks.

I've read lots of tutorials and ideas.  Most advice seems to recommend the spot removal tool, but as it's name implies, it is optimised for removing spots.  Doing the repair in many short segments works better than trying all at once, and often I resort to just lots and lots of spots, but even then, I need to redo the edges and backtrack and even resort to the eraser.  I do it on a separate layer, so the eraser works.  The history brush might work too, but the eraser is simpler and easier.  But a scratch is a lot different from a spot, and a special scratch removal tool gives the human the opportunity to provide more information of where Photoshop should search for suitable pixels. 

When really desperate, for some sky scenes and even water sometimes, I use the spot healing brush to do a "near enough" repair, and then the median filter with suitable masks on a separate merged layer to do a better job, but rather obviously, that doesn't work for the subject of the image.  And it all becomes a big chore. 

In fact, a relatively crummy algorithm that is only a whisker smarter than a blur might be optimum: If the human, me, identifies the ends of the scratch, the computer can know that the best pixels are adjacent to the scratch and use those.