As a former maya user, I think current state of the modeler almost feels like modeling in maya. And it no longer feels like application on top of houdini ui. It is native houdini.
For modeling:
With the shelf tools, radial menus and context sensitive menus, it is almost like maya's radial menus (you can even configure it same as maya) You dont have to remember hundreds of shortcuts like in some applications
QuickPivot tool almost the same as maya's pivot tool. Even shorcuts are very similar.
PolyPen is the ultimate modeling tool which has most of multicut and quaddraw tool's functionality combined in one.
Context sensitive menus when combined with radial menus, you almost have every tool at your fingertips and you can configure it as you like easily thanks to the new editor. And you can add your own shelf tools to the menus. Which is actually very nice.
Long story short, with 3 radial menus and context sensitive menus. You got everything maya has with right click menus. Plus it has everything houdini offers. Much more stable and performant.
I didn't retopo in houdini yet, i can't say much about it.
I think with modeler, you can model anything in houdini directly in viewport. Its just the workflow you should change a bit. These are 2 seperete softwares and each has its strength. But really.. houdini is ocean and i will never go back again.
I also have to mention Alexey, the developer of the plugin. Whatever issue i had with the plugin resolved in a couple of hours sometimes in minutes. He is very active in discord and helps people alot. Even helps in areas that are not modeler releated. Which is rare imo. Thanks for this great plugin and thanks to the sidefx staff for this great software.
Hope it helps.