How do I escape OneNote?

Help! How do I escape OneNote?

I have used OneNote more or less unsuccessfully since it came out, for over 20 years now. Periodically Microsoft

• loses my data
• syncs unsuccessfully
• refuses to sync whatsoever
• trashes my notebooks
• loses my notebooks altogether, or
• (worst) holds my notebooks hostage just out of reach - visible in OneDrive but inaccessible from OneNote.

When I succeeded in reaching Microsoft tech support, like the time Microsoft wiped out all my data on OneDrive, Microsoft claimed it was my fault. Actually one support person said that it was impossible to have done so before saying they could not recover anything.

This includes two separate questions to you helpful folks.

1. First, what app may be better? For my circumstances, I realize the specifics vary between us. Approximate alternative suggestions would be appreciated too
2. Second, what method can I use to best accomplish this transition? In particular, how do I rescue as much information as possible from notebooks created from all these different versions of OneNote over the years in a form that can be moved over to a different app?

1. What to use instead?

This is totally dependent on the user. Something better for me would look something like this. In rough order of priority.

Essential or highly preferred.

• Simpler is better. My work was lost most often when apps adde fancy bells and whistles. I use it for personal use only.
• Does an excellent (decent?) job of importing data
• Reliable backups, perhaps automated but possible for me to backup my notebooks myself in a clear, transparent way in case the software fails.
• Usable in Windows and more importantly in Android (nowadays I live on portable devices).
• Reliable sync across OS, preferably through a cloud. Willing to pay for other clouds if that helps and people have found that useful.
• Able to import pictures from other note apps.
• Adequately supported and updated - so that I can reasonably hope to use it for the next 5 years
• Hierarchical organization, not tags. I don't think in tags. If tags are there that is fine, but I need it organized in a tree fashion.
• Not Linux based.

Nice to have but can live without:

• Open source
• Free if possible but willing to pay reasonable prices for good service. and I'm quite willing to pay extra for added features to support the developer.
• Real support when necessary. User forums are great but when things really go south I prefer to reach the developer (typical with Android) or at least technical support.

2. How to plan the Great Escape?

I will leave this question more open-ended. Just two important considerations:

• Loses as little information as possible. In my attempts to escape OneNote I always lost data, particularly when trying to salvage earlier versions of onenote. Is there any strategy I can do to lose as little information as possible? Maybe some sort of step by step process?
• Allows me to rescue data from very old versions of OneNote. Maybe there is a good guide to doing this that I have not found?

My best answer thus far was to create one gigantic notebook and systematically pull in one notebook at a time. That seems to give OneNote indigestion and was unsuccessful.

Deep appreciation to anyone who helps me escape this quagmire. ☺️🙏