IBM Client Access vs. generic tn5250 over TLS.

I’m aware of the feature list of Client Access, IBM’s official client suite for IBM i and AS/400.

But there are also third party solutions, like this Java-based tn5250 client that supports TLS encryption for sessions. It often seems like mainstream users need nothing that can’t be solved with third-party software. Perhaps developers might need some feature in Client Access, but not app users, generally.

Can any recent users of IBM i (four hundred) speak to the use of third-party access solutions of any sort, in their environments?