> and I have heard other newer projects exist???
Yeah, know of librepcb [1] and horizon [2]. Both try to solve kicad's library problems. Librepcb files are designed with version control in mind, which I like. Horizon used parts of kicad (like autorouter) and is more feature rich.
I probably would have switched to kicad by now, but these new projects seem nice, too, and I decided to wait and see where the community settles. Hence, in my case, variety in open source hurts adoption.