Through Meterpreter an attacker can cd into a user's folders, edit a file, and run ipconfig on the victim. What level of control does that demonstrate?

Full interactive control of the remote machine — the attacker reads, modifies, and creates files and enumerates the network exactly as if sitting at the keyboard.

These commands look mundane, and that's the point — they prove arbitrary command execution on someone else's computer:

• cd c:\Users\...\Desktop + edit edit.txt — navigate the victim's filesystem and open a file in a built-in (vim-like) editor, then save changes. The attacker can plant, alter, or steal documents.
• ipconfig — list the victim's network interfaces and addresses, the first step toward pivoting to other machines on its LAN.

Creating a file like edit.txt on the victim's Desktop and then seeing it appear is a vivid proof of control: the attacker is, for all practical purposes, on that machine.

Tip: Once code runs as the user, the attacker inherits everything that user can do — data, network, and a launch pad deeper into the network.