Blender started ad in-house 3d modeling back in 1994, was open sourced in 2002, and continues with very active and sustainable development today. I used it most 2010-2012, and it has been incredible to see how much has happened since then.
I remember Blender back then. The days of watching squares slowly render over 2-7 minutes each for some cool project I made with lighting.
Has much new been added to editing/functionality or just speed optimisations?
I mean, even if you aren't using it now, it's probably worth looking at e.g. the latest release notes https://www.blender.org/download/releases/4-3/ just to see the array of things improving and adding onto stuff that mostly didn't exist 12 years ago.