Modern buck regulators seem to have way too many features that I can't turn off or customize.
The otherwise very nice AOZ1282-1 snookered me by having a 600-us fixed short-circuit protection interval--it wouldn't start up into a 220 uF capacitor, even with a very light load. Fortunately, switching to 22 uF fixed it, and I had some with the right footprint.
And then many go into stutter mode at light loads, e.g. the MCP16311. Its brother, the MCP16312, is claimed to stay in vanilla PWM mode throughout the load range, but the data sheet lies. That bit me once when I was trying to make an isolated +24 -> +-5V converter for an industrial control system, using two coupled inductors. Simulated great, but the undocumented stutter mode of the MCP16312 screwed it up.
Chips these days.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs