Simple RAW for 5e V: The Disadvantage Strikes Back

[Lvl 2 Expert]

This one is I think just simple enough maybe to not need its own thread.

Q110: Does the war caster feat actually help you cast spells while holding weapons, or is it already possible to use spells with somatic components without getting caught without your weapon ready if you don't have the feat?

This is the feat:

You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:
You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.

So let's say you don't have the feat, you want to cast while holding two weapons or one weapon and a shield and you're using a spell with a somatic component but not a material one. You can drop your weapon (free), cast and then pick up your weapon again (your one free interaction with an object as part of your movement). It's cheesy, but seems RAW legal. If you're using a two handed weapon you can even do it without much cheese at all, since it doesn't seem like a stretch that you can let go of your weapon with one hand and put it back on after casting, where the putting back costs you your interaction with an object. Now in both of those cases you run into trouble if you have to use a material component, because now you need your interaction with an object to use your component pouch or focus. But the war caster feat specifically only works on somatic components, not material ones, so how does not needing to let your weapon go for a moment to use somatic components actually improve this situation? Both with and without the feat it feels like you can cast spells with somatic components but can't cast spells with material components without ever being caught without your weapon ready.

(The other two benefits of the feat are clear, and both very useful on at least some builds, but I feel like I'm missing something on the one about somatic components.)