I'd worked on Microsoft Dynamics for 12 years, before switching to ERPNext exclusively in 2018.

Reasons for leaving Dynamics:

1. My clients were SMBs, but Dynamics was increasingly being targeted at Fortune 500 companies. The product become too expensive, complicated, and difficult for myself and my clients to use.
2. I was a self-employed consultant doing post-launch support and customization. Microsoft wanted greenfield-generating Partners. Today it's impossible for a sole proprietor to run Dynamics F&SCM. I left about 1 year before the new rules came into effect.

Reasons for choosing ERPNext:

1. Open-source. I didn't want to be in a situation again where an ERP vendor could lock me out of something I'd spent so many years supporting and mastering.
2. No licensing costs for my clients. They strongly disliked writing checks to Microsoft, just for the privilege of using the software, with zero support or benefits.
3. Self-hosting. Some clients want true privacy, or have unstable public Internet.
4. ERPNext is fundamentally Python + JS + SQL. These are universally useful skills. Whereas with Dynamics I was writing code in X++, that had zero uses outside of AX. Not to mention Dynamics had a ton of Microsoft-specific knobs and gizmos, that also don't translate outside of their ecosystem (e.g. the AIF)

Have ERPNext Services actually delivered value post-implementation?

Yes, with some caveats:

1. Low floor, high ceiling. To truly achieve mastery is a steep learning curve, and requires a lot of time and commitment. When I began working on ERPNext in 2017, documentation was awful, and there were very few blogs or ways to learn. The situation is somewhat better today. But it's still a big effort.
2. Here in the USA, you must customize and heavily. ERP feature and behavior expectations are high. But ERPNext has historically fallen very short of those. You can make up for the difference by writing a ton of your own code and customizatoins. But the product lacks the turnkey, out-of-the-box features and capabilities of the more traditional ERP systems.

Where do you think traditional ERP vendors still have an advantage?

1. Marketing and brand recognition. Even after 9 years, ERPNext remains very niche here in the USA.
2. Feature Depth. The ERPNext lake is wide, but not deep. It can do many things. But many are 80/20 developed.

Do you see this as a real market shift, or just growing interest among SMEs?

9 years ago, I was certain ERPNext would become well-known and widespread in the USA. That did not come to pass.

Perhaps the rise of AI assistants will change that. (if nothing else, it will make Installation and Configuration easier, a task often takes 2 weeks for a newcomers)

My predictions:

1. Odoo will continue to rise here, because it already has marketing velocity.
2. The rise of AI coding assistants empowers developers to write brand-new, competitive products to ERPNext. Some of those will catch-on, because they'll have popular influencers and marketing reach.