One of my players is playing a level 9 Artillerist, and she had upgraded to use both of the UAs as her baseline for the class and subclass as each came out, and she is super effective. Her pet Eldritch Cannon commonly uses all 3 options in the same fight, which is amazing for her compared to how it used to work (each cannon being a 1-trick pony).
True Strike crossbow and Bonus Action Force Blast deal solid damage. But the Protector ability is so strong, she is as important as the Cleric for party survival. I really want the Artillerist to have proficiency in Martial ranged weapons, which would give them pistols and rifles.
The Tinker's Magic ability has been useful several times (crowbar, caltrops, pole, a variety of containers for a variety of substances), because the players have to have their items on their character sheet, they sometimes just don't have the right tool for the job, especially when they have to split the party.
At 9th level, she has and uses more magic items than everyone else, after helping people fill up their attunement slots and creating a party collection of utility items. Admittedly, my campaign has lots of downtime, so the players can actually use their bastions and well-earned loot to create Uncommon magic items. She also started with the Crafter feat and is trained with lots of different crafting kits, and she just has the ability to make more kinds of items than everyone else.
