I use it constantly, never notice the dirtiness (dirty compared to what?), rarely have to deal with late trains and it moves a hell of a lot faster than
cars a lot of the time. There's plenty of routes where I don't even bother looking at driving directions/Uber because I know that no car can possibly beat the train.
I'd guess you've lived in NY for a long time and have forgotten (or never had to suffer through) how bad public transit is in most US cities.