> STM32 (my opinion).

STM32 is horrible, if you don't want to use the HAL.. Everything I used (Atmel, ESP32, rp2040) was better than that - Tho I heard NXP is bad.

STM32 is great if you choose to use the community-maintained Embassy HAL for these chips. Zero vendor code, async/await - it's a dream.

The same code will more or less run abstractly on an RP2040, as well (for common peripherals/traits.)