tl;dr: Had a 2008 GTI that got handed down to my brother, then later a manual 2010 GTI, then a number of cars after that. 2010 GTI is the one car I've consistently said I missed the most and consider it to be one of the best I've had. Traded in my Mazda CX-9 lease (a great family vehicle and surprisingly decent to drive considering its size) with the pandemic bump on used car values and happily got a GTI again.
Long version:
Got a 2008 GTI back in college, loved it, that got handed down to my brother. Dabbled around a bit with a 2009 Subaru WRX, my first manual, but it was severely lacking in refinement. Picked up a 2010 MK6 GTI manual and loved it. I had a few cars since that one and eventually ended up with a 2018 Mazda CX-9 which was hefty, but surprisingly a decent driver's car considering its size.
Pandemic hit and used car values actually went up which made trading in the lease on my CX-9 early a decent proposition so I did some shopping around. I'd had a BMW 335i before I picked up the CX-9, but I knew I didn't want to worry about the problems that BMWs could have. Yes, I know VWs aren't exactly super reliable either, but my 335i ended up having every common issues the forums had identified, most were covered under warranty, thankfully. My MK6 GTI was actually very reliable and had zero issues from when I picked it up with ~20k miles on it to when I traded it in with something around the upper ~70k mile range on it. I also wanted something more understated. The badge on a BMW alone seems to attract the wrong attention sometimes.
My younger brother and I are gearheads and any time we talk about what our favorite cars are or the best cars we've owned were, we always say it was our GTIs (he actually had a 2017 GTI for a bit, but he now has a BMW M235i which is AWESOME to drive).
Anyway, the MK7.5 GTI was on my radar but I did shop it against a number of other cars because I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted. I also considered cars like the Kia Stinger GT (saw it at a car show and I was actually really impressed with the interior and space and the performance is widely praised), Honda Accord (more family and comfort oriented, but still pretty quick in a straight line at least), even another BMW (despite my concerns I mentioned earlier), and some others here and there.
I ended up with the GTI though because my MK6 GTI is the one I've consistently said over the years ever since I got rid of that I wish I had kept longer and that I missed the most. I found a decent deal on a leftover 2019 SE w/DSG last summer and I've been enjoying it ever since! I'm glad to have the longer warranty that was last offered with the 2019 model year and while I was shopping for a manual, I've been happy with the DSG even though I think the 7-speed unit feels less responsive than the 6-speed DSG in certain ways. There's ways around that though.
Well, that was longer than I expected, haha.