Thanks for sharing @amachan.

I consider myself now an ex-GW gamer for very similar reasons.

I began with GW in 1986 with Blood Bowl first edition but quickly got drawn into WHFB 3rd edition and 40k Rogue trader.  Teenage me loved the almost unending and grindy games of 40k 2nd edition where I played Imperial Guard and Squats.

Obviously I didn’t have long to wait for half of my model collection to be rendered unusable with the elimination of the Squats from the game.

At Uni I switched to mainly RPGs as money was too tight to keep up with the miniatures hobby so I dropped out and stayed out due to work and family restrictions until 6th edition when I got back into miniatures in a big way.

Like you I discovered Beasts of War around this time too and to be honest that was probably the beginning of the end as now I realised that although the only games played locally were GW that this was not due to lack of choice.

I built a shiny new Necron army for 7th and then watched as all the models were made sub par and obsolete by the raft of new models for 9th edition (which I refused to buy). I tried AoS but found it sterile and tedious.

My first non GW games as I recall were first edition Deadzone, first edition Batman miniatures game both of which rekindled my enjoyment for mini wargaming after the trauma inflicted by my GW experiences, and thank God they did.

I still own 40k minis and AoS minis and as a favour will engage with guys at our club who need an opponent and won’t play a good game, but I don’t play any modern GW game out of choice any more.

I still get to use my 40k model collections using the One Page Rules Grimdark Future system which is great.