I have a Clara Color (it was like $10 more for the color version and it gives me a pretty screen when it's powered off) and I absolutely love it. I was not a fan of ebooks until I got it. Turns out what I was not a fan of was all the other ebook readers I tried. I'm reading books on it more frequently than I ever read physical books.
Technically, official Kobo books are KEPUB, which is their own proprietary version of EPUB they use for their store, but they can read EPUB and other formats just fine. And if they don't, Calibre solves that problem.
(Converting books to KEPUB is sometimes worth it, especially if they have illustrations mixed in with the text, because then you are able to do things more easily like zoom in to the image on the reader.)
im glad i didnt even try eink, i just went to best buy tried the cheapest tablets and the s9 fe works perfectly for me, wanted to like the p12 lenovo but the brightness was terrible on it, couldn't see shit. I think id be dissapointed in my reading experience if eink is so much nicer, i like having options to watch media and do other stuff
I used to have a normal tablet before buying my e-reader and can say with certainty it is night and day difference. So much more comfortable to read on e-ink. Even comics are usually good in black-and-white.