The dilemma is that they wont't make XD maximally useful as a standalone tool because it then eats into their other offerings like Illustrator or Photoshop.
Figma for example is a more complete solution if that's the only design tool you gonna use, it has a good pen tool and even blend modes for images.
XD shines when used together with their other apps. Figma isn't much cheaper than a CC subscription when you also add services/tools for commercial fonts, mockups, video, stock graphics and 3D on top.
"The dilemma is that they wont't make XD maximally useful as a standalone tool because it then eats into their other offerings like Illustrator or Photoshop."
I can certainly believe this. For a long time, Illustrator only had the option to create a single artboard (page). I'm convinced it was partly due to the overlap with InDesign. If you wanted to create a short document or leaflet, Illustrator would be fine for the purpose - but obviously not if you could only export a single page. Users were clamouring for multiple pages/artboards and Adobe finally introduced the feature in Illustrator CS4 in 2008. (There were over 12 versions of Illustrator prior to this.)
Figma for example is a more complete solution if that's the only design tool you gonna use, it has a good pen tool and even blend modes for images.
XD shines when used together with their other apps. Figma isn't much cheaper than a CC subscription when you also add services/tools for commercial fonts, mockups, video, stock graphics and 3D on top.