I've had a lot of fun with ESSB, but I only run it when a group of us are fooling with it. Panadapter displays allow one to "see the neighbors", and avoid problems. A smallish QSY can make a big difference. And it really is as nice as AM can be... seriously. Wide, clean, great audio is intriguing. But I run 1.9Khz wide 90% of the time, EQ'd to my voice.
Narrow is more efficient... and "dialed" to my voice, 1.9 is wide enough to be pleasant and articulate. Imagine that.