VLC trumps any sort of paid video player software, including the one provided by Microsoft. Been using it for years at work and its been flawless. In that scenario, it wins!
And ffmpeg too. It is also used by commercial video editing tools, thunbnail generation, etc. Not many people use proprietary encoder software. And HW encoders in cpu/gpu are often awful (generating big files for good-enough quality).
Couldn't agree more. So many softwares has come and went from my usual collection. But VLC still remains after so many years.