I think everyone that plays Minecraft should use Optifine, it's the best thing you can do to improve the gameplay. A lot of useful options like zooming or dynamic lighting are available.
I used to play with optifine a ton up until I was having compatibility issues with other mods. Maybe I'll have to look into it again. With all the years past, I imagine that those issues are no more!
I run a lot of mods and shaders and I have no problem with Optifine, in the past I agree that it was quite buggy, but now it's compatible with most mods.