It's a great tool. I feel like I can do whatever I want with the paths using the shift and alt keys and also by moving objects by set offsets so you can easily manipulate overlapping objects. I do kind of wish the xml view was more a part of the main interface as its kind of out of the way to use.
The pen tool is very handy because you can drag edges and once you get used to how it's done you can get really accurate shapes that you want to create with all the power to tweek without complicated features and menus.
One of the problems however was the rendering for gradients. It's part of the problem with this one Instance of my submission. You can notice the gradient banding. Maybe a different rendering of the svg would have better results. Inkscape has been known to have problems with that though.