Will,
It would really depend on what features you need, your experience and knowledge of RSS, XML, and XSL, and what your usage is going to be. I'm guessing that you are kind of at a crossroads with the current state of the News module. It does have 'issues', to put it mildly. For me, I don't need very many bells and whistles, at this point I'm using the XML/XSL module for most of my newsfeed work, as it allows me to use custom XSL files to transform and control rendering. I've got Atom feeds that will not work at all in the current News module, and I do not personally need the aggregation 'features' of the News module, so there is really nothing to be gained by using it, other than to help those who are. I continue to use the older v3.0.1 News module, though, as it still works fine for my situation.
I still prefer to create more of a customized look for each feed, when it makes sense to do it. A lot of feeds have extended namespaces, and unless you code for them, the info will not be rendered. The basic, title, description, and link tags, are not enough in some cases, and there really is little control of the matter with the new version v4.0.x. So, I'd rather, do a bit more work to get the info I want to present, and code for it. The News module v4.0.x is trying to make the process 'painless' and very user-friendly, but we see a lot of posts with folks having trouble, so obviously there is a lot more to be done. I know Peter is hard at work on it, and I don't want to seem as though I'm knocking his efforts, which are considerable. It's hard to bring home a module that is going to please everyone.
If I need aggregation features, I'll use the Feed Explorer, which is a bit more work, but I like it fine. Of course, these are my own preferences, and probably not going to work for someone who doesn't have the knowledge or desire to fuss with the XML/XSL, RSS, and Atom coding.
There are 3rd party modules out there, but I've not used any so, I couldn't really comment on their performance and features.
Cheers