I've had a similar experience with Google Music. I have iTunes Match for my iOS/Mac devices, but prefer Google Music as it works on my Android devices and anywhere a decent web browser is. If there was a nice web interface for iTunes Match so my play counts and playlists synced nicely, I'd probably use that, but for now Google Music works.

Bonus benefit of iTunes Match + Google Music is that I can redownload my older iTUnes songs DRM-free so the uploader will pull them in.

I was under the impression that iTunes Match doesn't eat into your iCloud storage, which is why it's a separate expense.

It doesn't. You're limited to 25,000 of your own (i.e. not purchased from iTunes) songs.

It does if it can't find matches for your tracks. This will happen generally with obscure tracks or live recordings, but sometimes it just fails to match things that are clearly in the iTunes store too.

Does it work abroad, or would you need to use a VPN?

Works fine

(Source: I have a US iTunes account and I'm living in Germany)