I think all the usual suspects make them; Rockford, JBL, JL, Audiocontrol, etc. along with the others mentioned already. Haven't seen any horror stories posted about anything on the market right now so as far as what is going to be most "user friendly" that's entirely subjective and you won't know until you actually install and try to figure out how to use it.
We have had a few head units come out with all the good features built in over the last few years, most of them have a comma in the MSRP, and AFAIK most of them now discontinued or out of stock just about everywhere online, though there may be some new models that replace those previous generation ones.
So yeah, DSP is still critical to get into the proper reference tier SQ realm and technology has improved dramatically since those days (where the best option was to buy Rane or similar home theater stuff and run it with an inverter).
Crutchfield is still a thing and they have really good phone support and customer service in general. Might could give them a call and discuss your goals, budget, and options with them. I know my way around the block a good bit but use them often if I want a HU to do something but don't know what is out in the market that fills my needs, they are really well informed on what is out there and of course are really easy to do returns/exchange if it doesn't work out.
Also worth mentioning that full range class D amps have come a long way too and if you're buying from a reputable brand you should expect fine performance for a fraction of the space, heat, and power consumption. Absolutely no reason to ever buy class A/B amps for 12V applications these days.