I spent a decade in the GIS space, ending back around the final days of ArcGIS 9.x, or very early days of 10.x. I also remember various alternative and early open source efforts of the time.
Then, about a year ago, after several years away from the scene, I got some mojo back and started investigating modern QGIS. I was very pleasantly surprised, it immediately felt like an upgrade from what I used to use. And also felt like coming home, in that it was obvious and intuitive how to accomplish the standard functions. If someone had put me in (that famous thing) a blindfolded time machine for a zero-year trip, popped me out, put me in front of QGIS and said "Welcome! This is ArcGIS 9.6!", it wouldn't have been at all unbelievable. If you know what I mean.
No it's not perfect. Casually and hastily wing your way around a project, copypasting here and there, setting up all kinds of parameters and advanced display bits&bobs, and - like most complex geospatial software - you'll, once in awhile, find yourself unceremoniously dumped out onto the desktop with a software error. So a highly robust and restore-able workflow is still essential. But regardless it's up there with the very best packages I've ever used.
Interesting, I have had the opposite experience to that. I spend a lot of time in ArcGIS late 9.x. and early 10.x and QGIS is not even remotely intuitive to me. You can drop me in ArcGIS Desktop or Pro years later and I can still intuit how to do everything, but I have to Google how to do anything in QGIS.
If you can, get yourself in front of an up to date version of ArcGIS Pro for a little while. The user interface will feel entirely different, and some people don't like it because it's different, but the entire package feels significantly better.
Importantly, a good deal, though not all, of the infuriatingly frustrating "random esri error for who knows what reason" issues have been resolved, and continue to improve.
Then, about a year ago, after several years away from the scene, I got some mojo back and started investigating modern QGIS. I was very pleasantly surprised, it immediately felt like an upgrade from what I used to use. And also felt like coming home, in that it was obvious and intuitive how to accomplish the standard functions. If someone had put me in (that famous thing) a blindfolded time machine for a zero-year trip, popped me out, put me in front of QGIS and said "Welcome! This is ArcGIS 9.6!", it wouldn't have been at all unbelievable. If you know what I mean.
No it's not perfect. Casually and hastily wing your way around a project, copypasting here and there, setting up all kinds of parameters and advanced display bits&bobs, and - like most complex geospatial software - you'll, once in awhile, find yourself unceremoniously dumped out onto the desktop with a software error. So a highly robust and restore-able workflow is still essential. But regardless it's up there with the very best packages I've ever used.