One of my sisters has tried many other internet providers and ALWAYS goes back to AOL. She, like some others have stated here, gets begged to come back and get free months of service. That said, she REFUSES to learn anything new because of the "ease of use" by AOL.
Personally, I have always disliked AOL. (When I initially got online it was through Prodigy...in the days of Windows 3.0, but I had free accounts for both through work. Prodigy was good back then; AOL stunk from the beginning.) I don't like their silliness (little hearts for favorites and all that other junk) and don't like the way their service is more of a "gated community" than a porthole to the world.
I have seen quite a few ISPs in operation and honestly I don't find an ounce of difference in any of them. So you have to learn a few new clicks and codes on one and not the other. Who Cares? I really don't see what you mean about gated vs. porthole. There is no website anywhere in the world that is available on one of AOL's rivals and not available on AOL.
My email is established on AOL. If someone can tell me why it's worth going through the inconvenience of re-establishing an email address somewhere else --- what real benefits I would accrue --- I might consider switching. But inevitably the AOL haters just come up with techie snob appeal answers when asked that question, and I really couldn't care less about tech fashion.
I just want to get out here and do what I like to do. And for that AOL works just fine for me.