Our use case for After Effects was video stabilization. We have had good luck with Blender for this. I've also noticed that the old simple motion graphics I used to do - title overlays, etc - Blender can do easily. As for more intensive motion graphics, I can't speak too much to that.
As for any After Effects-style NLE capabilities - DaVinci Resolve knocks those out of the park. You'll also probably hear a lot of people singing the praises of Natron for NLE and Motion Graphics, and from our experience with that it seemed like the learning curve was non-trivial, but anything AE (and some aspects of Premiere Pro) could do, it could match... Good luck!
The highlight of my childhood (not to mention the basic consumer education for my eventual career in computing) was wandering the aisles of the Fry's in Campbell, CA. When that wasn't possible, I would spend hours reading the massive advertising spreads in the Sunday Mercury News, building my dream computer. Truly, my best buys... were always at Fry's! Guaranteed.
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