One thing I learned over the years is that the closer my setup is to the default one, the better. I tried switching to the latest and greatest replacements, such as ack or ripgrep for grep, or httpie for curl, just to always return to the default options. Often, the return was caused by a frustration of not having the new tools installed on the random server I sshed to. It's probably just me being unable to persevere in keeping my environment customized, and I'm happy to see these alternative tools evolve and work for other people.

This sort of thing is a constant tension and it's highly likely to be a different optimum for every individual, but it's also important not to ignore genuine improvements for the sake of comfort/familiarity.

I suspect, in general, age has a fair amount to do with it (I certainly notice it in myself) but either way I think it's worth evaluating new things every so often.

Something like rg in specific can be really tricky to evaluate because it does basically the same thing as the builtin grep, but sometimes just being faster crosses a threshold where you can use it in ways you couldn't previously.

E.g. some kind of find as you type system, if it took 1s per letter it would be genuinely unusuable but 50ms might take it over the edge so now it's an option. Stuff like that.

Story of my life basically. It is just too much effort to keep customization preserved.