Meh, I really like Tower, but maybe that depends on what you're used to.
> It's not code, so if you want to do something more programmatic, you're going to end up with something ugly
this is true, ansibles DSL has its limits and the developers are pretty clear that there are some things that are too complicated for its yaml based syntax. 99% of use cases its great for, if you want that extra 1% then you have to write your own ansible modules (which is actually reasonably straightforward). I dont know chef but puppet has become more and more complicated over the years chasing the more advanced use cases and in many ways thats moved it away from a tool for sysadmins towards a being a tool for specialists so I think Ansibles outlook makes more sense. YMMV.