@ruby0x1 so, what convinces me to simply try a game engine (as apposed to commit to being a long term user), if i'm being honest, is probably a mountain of peer pressure (and being able to try it out at all without having to slip into the golden handcuffs first)
Case study: I gave godot a try (briefly) last spring in part because two close friends had been using it for an indie project, and they convince me in a moment of weakness that it might be a good tool for some of my simpler ideas.