So far (I'm on day 5 of an eval) I'm with ditching IS for Wise, too.
Something as trivial as setting the install to NOT display in ARP is right there in Wise, but how to do that in IS's GUI? No clue...Yes, I *could* edit the property directly bu then, why use a GUI?
Also, Wise shows the destination folder view as it would REALLY be, not using the variable names (i.e. as 'Program Files' rather than '[ProgramFilesFolder]'.
Another of the *major* goodies for me is to flag a folder with wildcards through the GUI so that, whatever gets put there ends up on the destination: very handy for adding toolbars to Office Shortcut Bar or Quick Launch toolbar. Again, no doubt I can do that in IS, but how?