There was a flamefest on another forum a few weeks ago about various scales. There was even someone who was insisting that O scale is more popular than HO scale (I have no idea where he's been for the last 50 years). I was one of the few defenders of HO and N scale. It was clear that the people who were bashing hadn't really spent much time with the other scales. I prefer O for several reasons, most of them personal, and my second choice probably would be S. But there's a lot of nice stuff out there in HO, N, and G. Whenever I'm at a hobby shop that has multiple scales, I always look at what's available in the other scales--not only the rolling stock, but also scenery and buildings. It's a good way to get ideas.
This Christmas, at Kansas City Union Station, all of the local clubs of various scales and gauges had layouts set up and open. I really enjoyed seeing all of the layouts. Some were better than others, but what could possibly be bad about spending an afternoon running around looking at half a dozen train layouts?
I suspect I will eventually end up building a small N scale layout just so I can spend a little time in another scale. I've seen some fold-up bookcase plans that would be doable. It wouldn't be an empire, but it would give me something a little different.