Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes applications. You can package your Kubernetes application as a Helm chart and share it with users. With out Helm, deploying a Kubernetes application includes deploying multiple YAML files (deployment, service and so on) using the kubectl command. When you have to run multiple applications and maintain them this is a difficult task. Using, Helm you can deploy your application using a single command. It also allow you to easily update and rollback your Kubernetes applications.
Not sure I understand the question. You listed some pros/cons. The question is about the experience of using it and if there is something more to add?
Me, personally, I don’t like helm. Is too overbloated, when you just need a glorified sed. It has many components and things you need to worry, some even with care for security implications, that I just prefer to avoid it completely.
There are other alternatives, but none (even helm, maybe) is established. Kubectl merged kustomize, which seems way more reasonable. You might want to try that.
I was using, in my previous job, a web deployment interface that did the changes needed to the yaml on deploy time, which we were also using before kubernetes for Capistrano deployments. The tool is Samson (GitHub.com/zendesk/samson).