Yes, I tried the cocoa version and that's what I'm referring to. I recall having real issues in particular with ansi-term not having the environment correctly s

Yes, I tried the cocoa version and that's what I'm referring to. I recall having real issues in particular with ansi-term not having the environment correctly set + simply not being able to resolve that. I'm pretty sure I had other issues too, but I can't remember them. To be fair, I've not tried the cocoa version or any other for some time, so things may have changed. However, I still think OP's point was unfair on aquamacs - other than some (annoying!) quirks regarding autofonts and tabs (I instantly turn those off), it's no different than emacs anywhere else, in my experience.