Personally I think the free version's greatest limit is board size, unless you stick with smaller components or SMT. If they'd bump it up to allow 6"x6", I think that would cover more hobbyist needs; but then again I am not experienced with these tools, so what do I really know? The next step up for board size and non-free is pretty steep - even if you dump the autorouter, its still $500.00 - not a small chunk of change. The only way to recover that is to sell boards or kits.
Easier to stick with kicad or geda, I think (and for kicad, I found a site that had a ton of library parts converted from eagle)...meh.