Create IWork Doc On Lap Top But No Way To Share Using ICloud?

I have heard that .mac and mobileme were supposed to be some unworkable system.But so far iCloud seems to be a practical joke, or a way around dropping the service entirely.There appears to be no way to create a document using the applications in iWork, on a Mac, and "share" them using the "Cloud", except for "iWork", which Apple is killing this summer. On an iPad, though, the only documents that can be accessed are copies from iTunes, iDisk (which I think dies this summer too) and webDav? So already, the supposed way of seamlessly syncing my documents depends on separate and apparently conflicting methods. Yet, all of Apple's literature would have me believe that all these apps are compatible, and use, this vaporware called "iCloud". 

I would really prefer Apple saying they can't make it work.I can start using Microsoft Office 11 and set up something that approximates a webDav, but then will apple kill that on the iPads? This is starting to look like a worse mess than it was before. If you can edit a photograph, how much harder can it be to edit text?

Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.11)