To answer your question, yes you can design your own blocks. You can design your own applique. You can design pieced blocks with applique on them. You can design quilts with multiple-sized blocks in the same quilt. You can design quilts that aren't square, or use oddly-shaped blocks like hexagons or parallelograms. You can design quilts using pictures - for instance, you can import the picture into EQ and trace over it. You can design quilting designs and motifs to see how your quilt will look after it's been quilted. You can swap out colors and fabrics, and you can upload new fabrics into the program. Most fabric manufacturers have free downloads of files containing pictures of their new fabrics, so all you have to do is download them into EQ. You can determine how much fabric you'll need for the quilt you want to make.
I love EQ. I agree with Dunster, it is well worth the price for what I get and how much I use it. Historically, EQ has rewarded returning customers by not charging the full price when upgrading. I had EQ6 and when I upgraded to EQ7, I think I paid about half price.
I did not find it hard to learn, either. There are video tutorials built into the software, and plenty of online tutorials and classes, but I didn't take any of them. I learned the whole thing on my own by just playing around with the software, looking things up in the manual, or if I was really stumped, I'd turn to the online EQ support forums, which are excellent.