I started with MSTS when it was the only game in town. After nothing but frustration trying to build my own route, I discovered Trainz almost 20 years ago. Since then while there have been some rough spots along the way, overall it has been a great ride. Being an open app has been one of its greatest strengths. Everyone can explore their own creativity without being told "no" you can't do that. This has also fostered a great sharing culture resulting in a DLS with thousands of objects that anyone can use. While everyone has their own standard of "good" if you don't like a particular object, don't use it. Others might like it for their own reasons - don't rain on their parade.
As for the other sims, I can only go by the reports of those brave enough to try them. Now I know that those on the public fora are only a small self-selected subset of all the users and that the squeaky wheels make the most noise but to stretch this allegory even more, where there is smoke there is fire. I've read enough about the issues in other sims to feel that I'm not missing out. Since my main focus is in creating objects and routes, any other sim that fails in that area is an automatic write-off. Doesn't matter how good it looks if basic creation is compromised or missing. Some people might only want good looks so for those, they would be a good fit.
If they did change the graphics significantly though (maybe add ray-tracing or something), that would void all my other concerns, and I would buy it in a heartbeat, as I'm all for better, more immersive, in-game graphics (like TSW2).
