On Windows at least VLC has had better alternatives for the past 20 years, both feature and UI wise. I had frame-stepping hotkeys back in the mid-00s with Korean video players. These days I use the currently maintained fork of MPC-HC which similarly has this.
On Mac it wasn't until the mid-10s that I found a decent player.
And which one is it. I’m using mpv currently.
https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc
I was asking about mac :P
I believe it was IINA, a front-end for mpv.