Hi Joe,
Istanbul airport is busy and a bit of a scrum, but it's like all big airports I guess. Depending on the layover between flights you need a visa for Turkey so you can't easily go landside if that's a consideration, but the walks between gates are shorter than Dubai and the F&B outlets a bit cheaper. If you need Turkish Delight it's a no brainer really.
Not flown Turkish long haul in economy but their product can't be much worse than Emirates.