Trading fees get all the attention, but I don't think they're what actually keeps people on an exchange

When I started out, I picked purely on trading fees. Lowest cost per trade, done, didn't think twice about it. Looking back that was kind of a dumb way to choose.

What I've noticed since is that fees are the thing you compare before you sign up, but usability is what decides whether you actually stick around. If the app is confusing or KYC feels like doing your taxes, people will get the heck out. It doesn't matter how cheap the trades were. I've seen people eat a slightly worse fee structure just because onboarding didn't make them want to throw their phone.

That being said, I'm still pretty new to this (humanities student, bear with me), so I might be missing the bigger picture. Things like liquidity/spreads or withdrawal reliability seem like they'd matter way more once you're actually moving real money around, stuff you wouldn't notice until it burns you once.

So genuinely asking people who've been doing this longer: once you're past the "which app doesn't suck to use" stage, what's the thing that actually separates a good exchange from a bad one? Liquidity, withdrawal reliability, compliance, or something else entirely?