[vidarh]

It's usually because getting proper (as in user-friendly) error reporting is a massively weak spot with ever parser generator I've seen to date.

Conflicts is generally one of the least interesting problems in writing a parser unless you're designing a new language, and especially when hand writing recursive descent parsers, potential conflicts/ambiguities tend to become obvious quickly.

For prototyping a new language, sure, use a parser generator to test the grammar.

I too fall in the category of loving the idea of parser generator (and having written a few) but always falling back on hand-written parsers because the generators I've seen have all been inadequate. I hope that chances some day.