I bought a Suunto because I wanted the 24-hour battery life because I was doing some crazy endurance events like R2R2R in the Grand Canyon.
The features that were essential for me were GPS, pairing with HR strap, and WiFi for uploading to Strava. I tried the optical sensor for HR and could never rely on it because it wasn’t accurate, also true on the battery-sucking annoying Apple Watch. VO2 max estimates, yada, were not useful for me.