There are so many things the ST does badly - weak sound chip, screen memory laid out like a Venetian blind (to quote Jeff Minter I think), and a mouse that was designed in a universe where ergonomics did not exist.
But I still love it. Without the ST I wouldn't have discovered programming and all the highs (and lows) that it brings. Looking back now, I'm surprised people were able to get as much out of it as they did.
Well, I'd argue about the music. The chiptune music from SID and YM has aged very well, while Amiga sounds horrbile without FM synth and 8-bit 11kHz samples.
Also memory was much better organized than Amiga - without the speed penalty.
And the simplicity of Shifter (the "GPU") allowed for really awsome 'beyond the dream' hacks, which were unavaliable on Amiga due to much more capable - but limited in 'hacking' video chip.
And then the first upgrade - Atari STE - amazes today with full control 8-channel 50kHz MODs... While mc68k CPU stayed at 8MHz!
There's a package EPSS for the STE which allows using its 8 channel DMA as a software synth, at the same time as running other midi channels in Cubase. Makes for a very tidy DAW:
Everything that supported graphics looked better than CGA. Even monochrome Hercules graphics.
Although to be fair CGA wasn't intended to be used on monitors. It was intended to be used on smeary composite video sources where you could expand the palette using artifact colors. Even then the graphics were terrible, but you could at least get a green.
Yea, I still have floppy disk and manual for mine. 256K of ram and no hard-drive required.
It definitely required you to have lost many times before you could complete it though; the galaxy was too large for you to explore fully in the time granted by the mechanics.
But I still love it. Without the ST I wouldn't have discovered programming and all the highs (and lows) that it brings. Looking back now, I'm surprised people were able to get as much out of it as they did.