@smallstonefan I'm not bashing ProTools. I own a perpetual license and I currently have 4 years of paid updates/maintenance in the queue.
If all DAWs except ProTools ceased to exist tomorrow I'd become comfortable in ProTools.
ProTools -> gelled = *not*. I can work in it but it's not a joyful experience.
As of now I'm about as proficient in S1 as I was in CbB. Still use CbB occasionally.
I record/create and mix and (small m) master in S1.
It's also what Warren Huart's "Produce Like a Pro" does with the multi-tracks he provides for members to mix. And Steven Slate too.
So yeah.... industry standard.
I'm not sure I see the *need* for collaborators to be on the same DAW. Citizen Regen has two members recording in Studio One, one in CbB, one in Ableton, and one in Reaper (he used to use Digital Performer).
It's never hindered us. Why? All members transfer full length 24/48 wav/flac files. We don't need DAW specific project/song files to get the collab done.
I like their implementation of Arranger track over CbB. There is no finalization process like CbB it's more WYSIWG.
I like the chord track when used properly. Works best on clean guitars (over distorted guitars), clean piano or organ and vocals (i,e. pre FX).
I prefer the "put a bus anywhere you want in the mixer and that a bus can also be a folder in the mixer. Don't need to see the vocals tracks, collapse them.
The built in Monitor 2Bus that can contain ARC or SONARWORKS or Slate's VSX is nifty too. And not interfere with your mixdown.
Again, all this "works for me".
FYI, my MIDI usage is limited, I'm not a synth or orchestrator guy, so their MIDI implementation is enough for me.
As is said many times here and all over the internet, "use what works best for you" and I'll add "there really is no 'superior' DAW"
Having used CbB, Reaper, Studio One, ProTools, Cubase, Harrison Mixbus 32C, Samplitude, Mixcraft , Digital Performer, Logic and Reaosn the question, to me, is not which is superior, but features work best for me.
As of today, I'm most comfortable in Studio One.
As a programmer, I can concede that in (very) rare cases a new feature might need to negate and old feature. But to just take a way a feature from your user base without confirmation that it's not used at all is utterly insane.