I've got an 80 meter horizontal loop up around 50 feet in my backyard,
fed with ladder line. It seems to work really well on 20 and 18
meters, no doubt has some decent gain over a dipole in some lobes. I
push about 500 watts into it and work all kinds of DX with very good
reports, even breaking pileups on 20 meters.

Would a 3 element yagi open up a new experience of antenna performance
for me, in terms of forward gain? Sure seems convenient to have an
antenna that doesn't require a tower and a rotator.

Thanks,

Chuck