I use Sync because it's just what I'm used to. I've been using it for more than 3 years, but I've also used Jerboa, Thunder, Liftoff, Lemotiff, Connect and Voyager.
Here's what I think about those:
Jerboa is good, maybe a bit laggy and things take a bit to load, but overall good. Nothing that stands out.
Thunder is very good, but I've been unable to reply DMs and comments from my notifications, I'd have to go to the browser or use another app to reply. I'm almost sure it'll get fixed in the future.
Connect is very, very good, but, and it's a huge BUT for me, every time I'm commenting and I want to change part of my comment, I click on the part I want to add or erase more text but instead of doing that it selects the text from where I was to where I clicked, and it happens with every comment and DM, to fix it I have to copy the whole thing, go back to the post, paste the comment again and keep on writing. I stopped using it.
Liftoff is very good, but I don't like that when I collapse a comment it says "comment collapsed, tap to expand" (that's it, it's just nit picking, everything else is good), I still sometimes use the app.
Lemotiff I can't log in but the idea/design is good.
Voyager is one of the best but sometimes it jumps to random parts of the timeline, I also prefer having an app not a PAW (or was it PWA? I don't remember the correct term)
Lemmur says my instance doesn't exist so I can't even try it.
Haven't used infinity or Boost yet, just downloaded Sync and it just works perfectly.
Sync is great, but I'm not the biggest fan of introducing ads in a service that doesn't inherently have ads - nothing against the dev getting paid. You also can't currently create a new post (just says "coming soon"). I used Sync on Reddit for years, so I'm otherwise pretty biased toward it.
Connect is a close second, for me. It's still a work in progress, but I feel it's pretty close to Sync. Given time, I think it'll be there. The dev is also very responsive. Features are pretty community driven as well - so if you want something, post in the community.
But I have to say, for its lack of polish, Jerboa still comes out on top for me. It's not as smooth scrolling the feed and it needs an option to handle links in-app, but with it being open source and there being a bunch of contributors adding features, every time I think it's missing something, it's just a matter of waiting for the next update. The one from today added DMing, which was the big thing I saw other apps handling better. Plus, I think (other than Sync), it's the only app that handles multiple accounts the best if you want sorting and defaults per account rather than app-wide.
I also still pop into Thunder, Summit, Liftoff, and Voyager periodically to see how they're coming along. And now, I'm including Infinity (and Boost or any others whenever they're ready).
At the end of the day, people are just going to have to try the different apps for themselves to see what works for them.
Tbh I didn't notice the ads haha I have ads completely removed from my device using a private DNS so none of the apps I use show me ads.
I prefer supporting devs via donations whenever I have the extra money but I'm waiting for the lifetime donation for Sync, I not doing aubscription models and I have 0 tolerance for ads.
Like you, though, I'll be jumping from time to time to other apps because what I've been loving about this Fediverse experience more than anything is how every app has been evolving and updating, it's just amazing.
I'm also waiting for Boost and Infinity to realease, god damn this is why I love competition.
Shit, forgot to write about Summit, it was one of the ones I liked the most but only when I'm viewing content as a "list" as opposed to "cards", IMO that's when Summit shines more than any other app.
I feel like Summit works more for me as a news site rather than a "social media" app, so I like that a lot. I'm still jumping in between apps atm.
Oh, and Voyager JUST released as an official app in the play store, I just saw the post a few minutes ago.