Considering a move back to Einstein Activity Capture: reliability, reporting, and retention?

We’re evaluating whether to move away from our third-party email and meeting capture tool because of rising costs. Before revisiting Einstein Activity Capture, I’d appreciate candid feedback from Salesforce admins using the upgraded version.

We originally moved to a third-party solution because of concerns with capture reliability, accuracy, and reporting. I’m interested in whether the recent changes have meaningfully addressed those issues.

Specifically:

• Reliability and accuracy: Are emails and meetings consistently captured and associated with the correct contacts, accounts, and leads? How often do you encounter missing activities, incorrect associations, duplicates, or disconnected users?
• Reporting: Can you report on captured emails and meetings through standard Salesforce reports and dashboards? What limitations remain?
• Retention: How long do captured emails and meetings remain accessible on account and contact records? Are they retained indefinitely, or does retention depend on licensing, configuration, or how the activity was captured?
• Overall experience: If you’ve moved from a third-party tool back to Einstein Activity Capture, what improved, what didn’t, and would you make the same decision again?

Our goal is to reduce costs without reintroducing gaps/frustrations in activity history or reporting. I’d appreciate real-world experiences, including any limitations you discovered after rollout.