My knowledge of Blender is limited to published animations made within it, so I can't comment on it's abilities, except to say that it has a reputation for having some quite excellent features within a complex interface, as you say. My advice to you would be to learn how to use Blender, and any other animation/3D modelling/2D editing packages you are able to access, and add this knowledge to your Anim8or skills. This way you will have a powerful toolkit to enable you to create whatever springs forth from your imagination. There is no need to restrict yourself to any one package, and you would be doing yourself a dis-service by doing so. As you suggest, all 3D modellers share the fundamentals of wireframe construction, and in general these wireframes can be exported/imported between packages.
I personally use Anim8or for modelling and UV mapping, and Carrara for scene composition and rendering, because I believe this makes use of both packages' best features. There are certain Anim8or features that I miss in Carrara (animation on/off button, sequence mode) but Carrara has things like physics, inverse kinematics, hair simulation, particle effects, quick renderer etc. which make it the better choice for rigging and rendering.