First I've heard of this - but it appears to mimic how a lot of people (myself included) tend to take notes in a paper notebook. I might give it a shot.
I have no idea, I've never used apple notes. But if you're after a wiki style knowledge management system that is offline first, with a text base with a simple markup, and based around the filesystem hierarchy which means it makes sense without the software then Zim-Wiki is for you.
