I've used a lot of micros as a hobbyist, and many on this list. For my time and money, I like the PSOC, even though the author pretty much dismisses them. PSOC

I've used a lot of micros as a hobbyist, and many on this list. For my time and money, I like the PSOC, even though the author pretty much dismisses them. PSOC always seems to be what I need. I've used it to read CCDs (timing is very strict, and works much better on the SOC than in software). I've made capacitive soil moisture sensors using the capsense. The psoc5 has good options for USB devices. But I don't make things to mass produce, so $1 has no appeal to me. $10 dev board is fine for me, if it does what I need it to do. There's a lot to love about the PSOC, but if you ignore all of the things they do that these other microcontrollers don't do, it might not look great by comparison. Also they have a development environment that is free and easy enough to learn that it doesn't require living in datasheets.