Nova Launcher

Edge Gestures as an alternative to android gestures

Quick Cursor for easy one handed usage

Panels as a sidebar based quick launch / app switcher

AccuWeather for weather and minute by minute forecast

Google Fit for basic quiet step counting - can also measure your heart rate with the camera

Outdoor Active or AllTrails to show you walking routes

Street Complete to contribute to open street map in a much friendlier way

Spark for multi account email

Ah come on. Think of all the good free software that sold out. This is a video player that's cross platform, is a simple install with no additional drivers required, and has kept up with video standards as they've progressed over the years. it doesn't have ads or bloatware or "premium" subscription.

Okay dev may have slowed or stopped and that's a shame but we have gotten a damn good deal so far.

And if VLC isn't to your liking there are good alternatives.

What apps did you struggle to get working as expected?

I do grant that unfortunately due to the distro and window manager differences there can be issues with graphical inconsistencies and integration into the system (file associations for example)