I grab the chance to reply to your question.
Firstly, i will tell you the opinion of some of the french tarot readers i know.
Most of them are aware of the Rider Waite Smith tarot but they don't really use it for some of the following reasons :
- Le Tarot de Marseille is sufficiently complete and logical to them, also easy to use, except for minor arcana that are a bit a pain to learn ;
- Pictures on cards are from an old way of illustrating, heritage of our history (italian one as well) and still very mystical about some ancient political and religious topics ;
- Le Tarot de Marseille is much more older than the Rider Waite Smith one, it is a bit like its "father" so what is the point to look at it ? (a bit of french chauvinism...) ;
- Hardly any Rider Waite Smith tarot book has been translated in french. You must be patient to find these books and be good at english to dive in the fantastical RWS world (as u know, we aren't the best to learn another language ^^).
Now, i'm going to tell you my personal point of view.
The Rider waite Smith tarot is a real revolution by bringing new ideas, new ways of thinking especially about minor arcana.
Actually, the Rider Waite Smith complements Le Tarot de Marseille very well and gives a new breath to it.
Some of you may growl by reading that, but... even if the Rider Waite Smith tarot is an independent tarot, we can't deny its origins and where it is from...
I will not say Le Tarot de Marseille is better than the Rider Waite Smith tarot, or vice versa, it would be totally wrong.
Both of them offer some different and some similar issues, some different and some similar possibilities because they have basically been made in the same pattern and they both belong to a scale of time that evolves and changes with the human race's evolution.
I will finish by saying i have got a soft spot for the Rider Waite Smith tarot merely because it suits the person i am at this moment and i do think it is up to everyone to try different tarots and meet one's match