How do people feel about BluOS?

It is if any streamer that does bluos is not the greatest.

seems Roon/quobus combo has greater potention to produce better sq if it is not tied into a bluos environment. 

BluOS is an operating system.  It runs on the hardware of the streamer and provides the UI (user interface).  It can be built into many different devices, so commenting on sound quality without the context of the hardware it's running on isn't relevant.

Hard to believe no comments about sound quality.

is this important?  

I just got a couple of Node 2is, one for the living room and one for my listening room.  It's my first foray into streaming other than Amazon HD on the phone for headphone listening and use in the car.

I like it so far, especially for the wife.  I set the presets for her favorite playlists, and set her up so they show up on the Harmony remote touch screen with the playlist names.  And the phone app is easy enough for her to use to play other stuff, as it's similar enough to the Amazon HD phone app that she didn't have much trouble with it.  And she has severe challenges in dealing with new technology.

Could it be better? Sure.  Most of the problem is that Amazon doesn't really have an API that I've found beyond the Alexa skill api, which kind of blocks third parties from developing a full featured Amazon implementation.

Roon has a better UI but BluOS is free. What's more important to you?

Depending on your Bluesound device, or the rest of the gear in the chain, any differences in sound quality may be negligible. 

Blu OS works well for me.  I stream Qobuz and it works well.  There are frequent software updates, which can be a little bothersome, but overall it works very well.  Stable operation and good search and tagging capability.

I don't care for it especially.  It was my first stream OS and my least preferred. I cannot abide the persistant queue. It is about on a par with MoOde. My two keepers are Volumio (mfg. custom) and piCore player/LMS.  You need a front end app for piCore but the art and customization are better.  For Qobuz or Tidal BubbleUPnP works great withe the free Volumio. piCore plays Pandora, BandCamp and Soundstream etc. that BluOS does NOT.
I ain't giving Roon $$ for something I can do myself.
But if that's your thing pCore does Roon. Volumio free does not. If you get a player with the custom Volumio (Pro-Ject. miniDSP, etc.) they play it and  most of the most popular stream services.

Roon is established.  Life membership will survive me as my will assigns it to a lucky sole.  

I really like my BluOS and will take your word that Roon is better (they are not an apples to apples comparison) but having been in IT my entire life, Roon for Life depends on how long they are in business, not how long you last. And it based on the life of software and software companies, it probably will not be around 5-10 years from now. That, or something much better will come along for much cheaper. Which might be totally OK for folks.