Before starting my record attempt between Kemijärvi, Finland and Lagos, Portugal, people told me over and over it would break down in Germany. So much so that I even tried to re-but (pre-but?) some of the likely critique.
Now, having made the trip, and none of the total
I think many people who complain about DB simply have no idea what it’s like elsewhere. I recently returned to Toronto, Canada from spending a few weeks in Germany. We relied on the train system for all of our travel within the country, and yes occasionally trains were late/delayed, but we were actually able to get everywhere we needed to without driving. This is with two adults and two kids with a stroller and occasionally luggage.
Coming back to Toronto was a bit of shock. Our municipal train system is adequate but nowhere near the level of, say, Berlin. Our regional train system is fundamentally broken because you still need a car at the end of your journey. There is virtually no train network in any of the destination cities.
Instead you are forced to drive. And our highways are congested. It takes hours of sitting in traffic to get around outside of the city. And this is completey normal here, people do this every day.
Edit: The other thing that was practically magical was the DB pass that we bought. A single pass allowed us unlimited travel on all the regional trains as well as all the municipal transit in every city we visited. This is unheard of back here.