I moved from Brooklyn during the pandemic for an easier commute to family in NJ and I personally would rather be living in NYC most of the time but I also don't think a 40 min (max) wait is entirely unbearable myself. At least it's 24 hour service and I can still do whatever I want to be doing. It's why JC was a reasonable compromise for me but anywhere I couldn't catch the PATH from and would be relying on NJ Transit trains and buses was not in consideration. It really depends on what your tolerance is for that waiting around late at night and how often you plan to be in the city that late.

There are also buses as people mentioned, the path is just cheaper so I generally opt for a longer wait regardless.

I've never felt unsafe in the PATH station myself, but I think I tend to have higher risk tolerance than some in those situations (or I might be an idiot) so I'm not judging others who do. I've only been here for two years and I haven't increased my trips out at night to anything like prepandemic levels so maybe I've just been lucky. I worked very late nights when in the city so I'm kind of desensitized to 3 am mostly empty subway cars, and the I haven't been on PATH cars that were anything like that.