Yeah, XMPP has changed a loooott since then.

XMPP's main problems at the moment are clients, in my opinion. There's 3 main clients for PC; one is 100% python (including frontend) and breaks semi-regularly, one does not officially support Windows and thus cuts out a large portion of the community + doesn't have as many features as others, and one lacks features and looks extremely outdated. The state on iOS is even worse as well, and Android is fine but could be better.

If you're considering XMPP again, I'd recommend waiting a few months for Prose https://prose.org/ to fully release, it looks like it'll improve the experience a lot.