Kali Linux has helped me with my learning and experimentation by allowing me to do many CTFs when I was learning to go into the offensive security side or doing penetration testing. There, I learned many probing attacks, such as HTTP probe, and then there is the Gitrob tool. Many of the offensive security tools that I used were in Kali Linux. The best part is automating it through the CLI. The CLI is the one feature that I have used the most in Kali Linux.
The most significant benefits I have experienced since using Kali Linux for my personal or professional work are the hands-on capabilities that we use on the tools at every stage of probing a website. This includes everything from reconnaissance to active attacks, passive attacks, and then trying to use Burp Suite, which is a proxy tool. That is where I find it the most useful. Getting accustomed to the terminal gives you a different feeling than using the GUI.
Kali Linux stands out compared to other operating systems I have used for security work because it is a specific distribution of Linux that has all the required tools pre-loaded and configured. Python is already configured with the correct path variable, Java is installed already, and Go is pre-loaded. These are features that every offensive security software or operating system needs. If I'm using Windows and trying to attack a website, I have to manually install those programming languages that I will be writing scripts on, and then declare the path variables. That makes it more tedious than how Kali Linux works. Additionally, I can run multiple threads in Kali Linux, and the operating system is still able to support the performance, compared to Windows, which will lag or freeze if given multiple processes to run.
My advice for others looking into using Kali Linux is to first understand the basics of Linux, then understand how the Linux terminal works, and only after that should you dive into Kali Linux. If Kali Linux is the first operating system you are using in a Linux environment, you might become confused. Many of the features do not have a graphical user interface, so you will need to be more accustomed to the terminal.
Kali Linux is a great operating system. I appreciate it because it offers a diverse range of tools. I do not think I have ever used all the tools that are pre-provided in the operating system. An option to choose what different kinds of attacks you are using so you can streamline the software that you are downloading would be beneficial. If I need something for an active attack, that would be a different stream of tools that should be pre-loaded, compared to passive kinds of attacks. That could be a major upgrade or option for choosing at the time of download. You could get a lightweight operating system, and if needed, you can always download those tools later. Overall, I found this product to be valuable for my security work.