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Hello @Skyman ,
The metronome is like that super annoying member of your group of pals. He’s generally helpful and he makes the group better, but man, can he be a pain!
So yeah, I don’t hang out with him all the time. I like to use it for practicing scales, and I find that as time has gone by here on the site, I’ll play Tony’s drills by using the tabs and the metronome instead of the play-along video. The metronome lets me move the speed up in smaller steps than the video’s speed controls. It’s also good for song practice, but only after I can actually play the song . . . if I’m still struggling with the song itself, the metronome is just another layer of difficulty and it doesn’t help yet.
As for a favorite, I too like Pro Metronome from EUMLab. If you’re on iOS, it can be found here — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-metronome-tempo-beat-subdivision-polyrhythm/id477960671 — not sure about Android. This is one of the few apps where the paid upgrade is really worth it, since that unlocks multiple beat subdivisions and it also adds different voices for the sounds. It can simulate a drum kit, and it can count “one and two and three and” after the upgrade.
I think the most difficult part of using the metronome at first was being willing to go slow enough to make it useful. Like so many things with this instrument, it starts off being awkward and unnatural and difficult, but with just a bit of persistence, it gets easier and easier until it feels normal.