Funny, I had the opposite experience. Ran a Stihl saw for about eight years, then swapped it in on a new Husky. I like the Husky better so far, but I have only had it three years so the jury’s still out.
I don’t think there’s any reason to “have trouble” with a good chain saw, as long as routine maintenance is performed and the chains are kept sharp.
My Makita recip saw (Sawzall is a Milwaukee Tools ™ name) can be fitted with a 12" blade that goes positively medieval on limbs and small trees. Beyond that, it’s time for the Homelite chainsaw to awaken.
My father got one of those. It hasn’t been used a lot, but it’s far nicer than the lopper he has that might be older than I am. It also works decently as a hand-held mini-chainsaw if you can work around the pole.
I got a $125 Home Depot chain saw and it worked great. I took down two 30’ trees with it, no problem. It’s currently on tour through my extended family, everybody’s doing a little fall clean up. I much prefer it to an electric chain saw, the two I’ve used just didn’t seem to have enough juice to cut the bigger stuff.
In my experience, a SawZall is mostly a demo tool, but I guess it would be pretty good at cutting smaller branches. I guess it’s all in the blade you use, there are many different types.
Bosch, among others, makes a specific 10" pruning blade for recip saws - IMO works better on green wood than demolition blades. But for any branches over 2" and under 6" in diameter, I still think the small electric chain saw is the way to go for speed. Still, after many years of using all different kinds of power woodworking as well as outdoor tools (including chain saws from 8" to 20" bars), and seeing in my professional life the injuries that can result from chain saws, I’ve concluded that chain saws are among the most dangerous pieces of equipment out there. They can, in a heartbeat, dismember and disfigure even the most cautious user.
If you go to Home Depot, they sell a small chainsaw that’s pretty cheap (less than $50) that’s meant for limb cutting. It works well from what I’ve seen - I don’t use it myself- on trees up to 10" or 12" around and one advantage is that it’s much lighter than a fullsize model, so it’s less tiring to hold. If it fufills your needs, which it sounds like it will if you’re cutting branches rather than trees, and it costs less than a full-size chainsaw, maybe you could ask santa for that and a modestly priced reciprocating saw