First I have to choose one. Second I have to trust a 3rd party. Third, I have to figure out how to use/install it. All this for functionality that should be right there with all the other audio things that are bundled with it.

BTW I hate needing plug-ins or add-ons for other software too for similar reasons - Gnome comes to mind.

If there's a 3-band EQ built in, it should probably be an 8-band instead. 3-band is hardly worth using, 8-band lets you do a decent job of balancing most various audio equipment well enough. Should be hardly any additional code complexity or maint burden for a significant functional upgrade.