I was of that opinion to start with, being a devout PHP junky as I could not get into (or didn't have the time to study) smarty at all.
However, once you get used to how smarty works and what is possible through x-cart (i.e. most if not all things) I wouldn't switch now.
Keep persavering - it is worth it
A good resource for info on smarty is:
http://smarty.php.net/manual/en/what.is.smarty.html
Funkydunk