I like the Shimano MTB stuff, usually I'm all in on the XT level stuff. I did have some XTR cranks back in the day, but they had this cool dark grey color. I especially like the XT disk brakes and their clipless XT trail pedals.
switched from SH51 single-release to SH56 multi-release and clipless became worlds better.
Also everyone should try di2.
I do too -- on the road, I've migrated over to SRAM, but my hardtail MTB still runs a mix of SLX/XT/XTR. When I buy a new MTB next year, I may or may not stick with Shimano. We'll see.