I don't want to be part of an argument or the target of hate posts, but I thought this could be a good start to a long and productive discussion. I do believe that digital is the future of VHF/UHF voice radio, as there are advantages not available in analog modes.
I have tried D-star, DMR, and P25 in the ham radio world, and I work in radio also, so I've looked a lot of P25 radios in the eye that way too.
As has been said before, each has it's advantages and disadvantages. I offer some personal viewpoints to add to the discussion pool:
For the USER, DMR wins in that there are inexpensive portable radios available. But repeaters are NOT inexpensive, in fact it's a lot harder to build a (good) DMR repeater from scratch than most any other mode. Remember that repeaters have to be built, maintained, and operated by someone. If you've ever tried to make yourself a DMR radio codeplug, you might want to figure your valuable time into the cost to get on the air. I personally am less enthusiastic about DMR because your choice of talkgroups is controlled by the repeater (or network) manager. (Hotspot users may disregard the repeater issues... the relative merits of repeaters vs. hotspots might be another worthwhile discussion)
P25 is a distant competitor, to be sure, and new radios are big bucks but there will be increasing numbers of surplused P25 radios available as time passes. The radios might be a little battered, but still good. So don't count P25 out. P25 offers an enormous variety of nonvoice services built into the format, so local systems might offer lots of interesting capabilities, assuming controllers, etc. were affordable or built by someone more clever than me.
D-star is my personal favorite as the user is the one who selects where to link. There are hundreds of D-star reflectors (most of which have little or no traffic, to be sure - like the analog repeater spectrum in most metropolitan areas), and, assuming it's OK with the repeater operator, you can select them 'on the fly'. D-star has detractors regarding voice quality, and I will agree, when the bit error rate is high, the quality of the voice audio deteriorates more quickly than some other modes, but with low BER, I don't think D-star sounds any worse than other modes. In fact, all the modes can carry excellent audio, or audio that would make a cat barf, depending on the adjustment of the radio equipment in use. I've found D-star radios easier to keypad program, but that is perhaps due to the radios I have for each of the 3 modes I've mentioned. I wish there were more radio brands carrying D-star models, for competition might reduce per-radio costs.
Now, comes YSF. It's a nice idea, not terribly expensive to get into. I personally have little exposure to this mode, but frankly. what does it offer that other digital modes don't? If a YSF proponent would step in and explain, it might benefit us all, and me in particular.
That's all I care to say. Thanks for reading.