I find even under dry conditions that my hydraulic disc brakes are a major improvement over rim brakes, probably because I do a lot of riding in very steep hills and off-road, and I make very heavy use of the brakes. Being sub-clinically paranoid after a significant injury probably doesn't help either, but I find they have given me a lot more confidence.

Having said that, I recently put new rims and Campy rim brakes on a different road bike, and I would say they are at least 80% as effective. My hands do hurt more, however, when I use conventional brakes for long descents.

For me, the main irritations are finicky adjustment and frequent replacement of pads as well as rotors. The other thing is I highly recommend thru-axle, especially in the front, if you get disc brakes. I don't have it, but I wish I did. Because of the way the front brake caliper mounts on most forks, the force vector points down, which tends to push the wheel out of the fork dropouts. (My Enve 1st gen cyclocross fork has forward-pointing dropouts, which is a bit better, but they obviously decided thru-axle was an improvement, because the next gen of cyclocross fork is thru-axle.)

I also recommend Shimano (vs. SRAM) as mineral oil is a lot more pleasant to work with than DOT brake fluid, when it comes time to bleed your brakes (another delight).