But what is the reality - some of you must be using them is a big way ?
I use thousamds of DC/DC converters from Power Trends (TI) and just love the little buggers. I do, just by habit, set the switchet to 5.25V and follow it by an inductor and a capacitor. With that setup I have never had any reason to investigate ripple etc so I do not know what it is, but it is problem free. A collegue decided that $10 for 24 to 5.25 at 3A was too expensive and spent months to make one and failed.
My mantra is "I know no engineer that can not design a switcher and know no engineer that can make one that matches a unit from a power supply company"

so, as far as my advice, switchers are wonderful but do not even dream of making your own

I know this is going to create a flood of posts "I have made my own switcher and it works". Fine, but hold those posts till you have measurements that show stability, efficiency and head being as good as a 'storebought" one.

Erik