Inkscape is great, esp. for being opensource and free. Inkscape is pretty easy to use and has a lot of neat, hobbyist, plugins that do interesting things.
Illustrator does lots of things Inkscape does not do, but as far as vector illustration goes, all vector illustration software does most of the same things: shapes, paths, node editing, text, clones, symbols, etc. . The shortcuts will be different, and some tools are unique to each program, or will require fewer/or more steps.
I am currently using Inkscape for logo designs . I have a XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro drawing tablet with Screen works with inkscape straight out of the box . it’s true that it very different to paint directly on the screen and yes! it helps my workflow a lot.