Even transferring out was a hassle. I had privacy service, and namecheap sends the confirmation email to the proxy address, and not your actual contact address. They also spam filter the service so aggressively that you won't receive their transfer confirmations...sent FROM namecheap. Luckily, the transfer completed at the end of the window.
Their hosted email stinks, too. They spam filter it pretty hard and nothing you can do can effectively whitelist emails.
My impression is that they focus on not doing anything actively evil too often, and respond to just enough social media posts to give the impression they're responsive.
I got a free domain with Github student pack from Namecheap. Just my personal experience, the person I talked to seemed very helpful and kind. However, the multiple rounds of talking to a real person to register a domain makes me think they don't have nearly enough automation which is a red flag.