I've been using Confulence for a long time in all my companies. It's not the best product for sure. However, regarding: 1) slowness - it's faster selfhosted than their shitty cloud solution 2) editor - one of the best features, not replicated anywhere is their macro collection. I'd prefer markdown, but dynamic object embedded in our specs/documentation is a very useful feature. Also for non-technical people their editor even in current state is easier than other non-WYSIWYG editors for sure.

There is a place for a competitor to Confluence, because the need is still there. Help non-technical people capture and buld documents self-hosted inside your firewall with dynamic elements.

Atlassian's decision to dump the self-hosted version in 2024 will create the niche for all the companies that would want to migrate away. They just got greedy and got too big, went public, founders cached out and now it's the hired managers playground.