My grandchildren go to public school (in a rural area - good school) that uses Saxon. I sub some, and know many of the kids. Saxon is boring and repetitive - no prolbem solving, nothing to 'get their attention'. I also see kids who do not know their basic skills - multiplication tables at 4th, or, the other day, at 7th. I know the teachers as well. I don't blame them (except that they adopted Saxon in the first place.)
Grades 6-8 don't use Saxon. Harcourt is used for 6 & 7, Prentice for Algebra, maybe Pre-algebra. Harcourt isn't hard enough, to me, for 6-7. I have taught out of older Harcourt books. There is not enough new stuff for these grades. I helped one of the kids work on homework - fractions - and the understanding was not there - after 5 years of Saxon.
Prentice is not too bad, but I prefer Glencoe/McGraw-Hill for newer books. I used Dolcianni (Houghton Mifflin) for years in Algebra.
Perhaps it also would depend on the student. My daughter has experienced the exact opposite of what you're suggesting.