And this is precisely the sort of situation in which to trust your ears.
It seems like a subcurrent of this thread could more accurately be stated, "You have to know when to trust your ears, and when to close your mind."
Since switching to Samplitude, tracking and mixing have become significantly easier for me. Partially through a different software design, yes, but partially as well because it simply sounds better to me. It's much easier to achieve sounds I can work with.
As I stated before, you can get the entire population of Earth to jump up and down simultaneously, screaming that there's no difference between method a and method b, but if I think method b gives me better results, by God I'm going to use method b.
As artists and craftsmen, we learn to trust our ears for good reasons, and the opinions of others have their place, but sound is precious to me, and what I hear for myself takes precedence.
I love my Germanium. Some people aren't so keen on it. People have different opinions about gear. What's the big fukkin deal?
Cheers.
