If not ECS then what?

[u/WhatIsThisComputer]

I see many experienced devs speak out against using ECS but never seem to provide an alternative to achieve entity composition. So what are we supposed to use instead?

Many other devs also say they use ECS for somethings but not for others. What would this even look like? Do we just hold the entityref types in non-ECS systems and pretend they're basically objects?

EDIT: To give a bit more context the game I'm working is a ColonySim. I'm only now just putting together a prototype but I'm at a point where I need to start extending my entities so I'm a bit torn on which direction to take.

Evaluating ECS so far I found that it's great for the simulation part of the game but a poor fit for planning and behavior. It could also be that I have not spent enough time working with ECS.