It's definitely worth it. The last free version, 0.9.4 can still be downloaded and played without a problem, but it's unlikely that you will still be able to find mods for it. But even without mods the new version is worth it, as there have been many great improvements. But still I guess I played the longest with the great WireMod for GMod 10, which basically let's you program in the mod
You get lots of simple commands, like add/substract/multiply, etc. several sensors and lots more, letting you build cool stuff. Unfortunately I got a severe lack of creativity, but that typical little beginners' construction that is
a stopwatch and
this horribly unaesthetic but effective attack drone (automatically locking on to targets, driving towards them and firing, while still keeping a nice distance) were still fun to make
Oh, yeah: Cool idea, I'd like joining in some time