Jamesh wrote: ↑9 Jan 2022, 10:49pm
Most shoes I've tried 5-6 pairs have all got ventilation holes in the uppers great for the cold and rain not!!
I once tried (when I got my first pair of Shimano SPDs) to find out why that was. I never did find out - it remains a mystery to me that winter shoes should be open to the cold air and rain (there is also some ingress of cold and wet due to the construction of the cleat area but that is at least explicable).
The conclusion I came to was that cycle shoes are designed for a type of cycling that is essentially leisure or sports orientated: there is no notion that you might need or want to wear them in inclement weather, perhaps all day and that keeping your feet dry and warm is even necessary.
AFAIK, no-one wears overshoes (the proffered solution) in everyday life, you wear the shoes that are appropriate to the weather. There are indeed SPD boots as well, but this is IMV an extreme (and very expensive) alternative to ordinary weather-proof shoes.
My solution (as others have suggested) is Sealskinz and overshoes (plus I think a bit of walking, toe twiddling, cafe stops etc if very severe). But I still think this is a very strange thing to have to do. Not fit for purpose is the phrase that comes to mind.