the recent firmware update

[RogerDH]

Have you ever tried it?
Tacking sends the drone on a cross vector to the wind meaning the velocity is reduced relative to head on - meaning you can make headway against it. Obviously if the wind velocity exceeds the drone max velocity at the tack angle, it's not going to help. Just like your sailboat is toast in a gale force wind.
You can zig zag your way back home using this technique if the wind is <= drone Max Velocity.
Try it before you dismiss it - it's saved my butt several times.

If you have a wind blowing from the north at 20 m/s and you have a drone that can fly at 21 m/s in still air, then you can make 1 m/s headway into the wind, but only by flying directly north, straight into it. If you turn at any angle to the wind, it will still be blowing you southward at 20 m/s, but your northward velocity will now be less than 21 m/s because you're vectoring some velocity east or west. There's really no similarity at all to sailboat physics. If you can't fly faster than the wind, then you can't fly into it, and tacking will lose ground faster than flying straight into it.

 

[Droning on and on...]

You forget the drone motors ARE actively working against the air and are responsible for steering.
lol how do you think it moves? Some folks think it's different but if you give it some thought you'll see the similarities.

No.

This is EXACTLY the same as a motorboat on a river. If the max speed of the boat is 10 knots, and the river is flowing at 8 kts, pointing straight up-river will get you 2kts relative to the shore. If you point the boat 45° across the current, you will be going 7kts into the current and 7kts perpendicular, going backwards 1kt relative to the shore.

Tacking doesn't work for motorboats.

The same is true for a drone in the air. Velocity vector calculations are simple physics, and if you tack back and forth you simply waste power traversing the perpendicular unnecessarily, wasting power you may need to get back.

This is a dangerous misunderstanding held by many, and drones have not made it back because of this.