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Funny you mention this as an example. I find ggplot2 good for exploratory analysis on a data frame with many categorical variables that can be used for faceting/conditioning or grouping. When trying to make any modifications to its appearance, I usually return to base graphics.

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Same here. ggplot is nice, but whenever I need to do something more complex i suddenly find myself on stackoverflow. Base graph is super easy and usually get things done, even lattice is somehow more intuitive. ggplot when comes to details, seems awkward to me.

Agreed, I almost use base r exclusively during exploratory work and move to ggplot only when I want to present a finding... I guess you could say its in-efficient but it seems to work.

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