Joplin deserves a place on your shortlist when keeping useful notes matters more than building a polished dashboard. The real decision is how much organisation and sync setup you want to manage.
Obsidian can be a straightforward writing app or a complicated personal system. Its value depends on which of those you actually need—and whether you can resist configuring the second before using the first.
A good desktop notes system can become awkward on a phone. Obsidian’s mobile offering deserves a separate evaluation focused on capture, navigation and the size of your existing system.