Pretty big fan of Monero actually and I know the codebase inside out becsuse I've spent a LOT of time with it both before and after it forked from Saberhagen's scam. Community is good too.

BUT the Monero crowd harbours a lot of wishful thinking around it being more effective than bitcoin.

Totally disagree about tailings, cool idea but if fees don't rise enough for the security budget it's a dead end anyway.