They offer additional features. One Note ties into the MS eco-system in an okish way. Obsidian is basically text (actually md) in a folder/folders but supports plug-ins that can do a lot. Notion is backed by databases. Others run in the terminal and can support plug-ins. Evernote was one of the first to offer additional features and offered syncing and connections to other apps (seems a lot of that has been restricted in the last 15 years).

I'm with you there, I carry a small notebook with me everywhere I go and write notes about everything. I remember things that I wrote on paper more easily than inputting them on an app. I guess notetaking apps like logseq has a lot of advantages, like displaying and auto-formatting your notes in a nice way, but for me it's not really useful. I don't look at my notes everyday. Also it's nice to do something without requiring looking at a screen once in a while!

Seeing all these recommendations for all these note taking applications makes me feel so out of touch lol like I literally just use Discord for short-term scrap notes and then I use txt files for long-term notes (synced to my Dropbox), like you said.

I'm probably missing out on some features but honestly I have instant cloud syncing for my short-term and long-term notes and it works well enough for me, plus with 2FA it's generally secure enough. Anything sensitive would be encrypted and possibly stored locally only. It works well enough for me.