FWIW, I know a Checkpoint guy and he swears they’re the best. I haven’t had a chance to do a comparison with him yet but the impression I get is that Checkpoint gets overlooked more than anything so they don’t do great on r/networking.

There is another guy in this thread who gives a good review saying Checkpoint got good in response to competition. Forti is the value option. And, FTD is looked down upon while ASA has some niches. So, PAN, Checkpoint, and Fortinet appears to be the leaders.