I'm just an amateur of a similar amount of time, but I think it comes down to what inspires someone to create whether it's a physical interface or a graphical one. A little inspiration can overcome a lot of inefficiency. I prefer a tracker, but still want something like a DAW.

Sunvox is pretty great for quickly roughing out an idea. I use my MIDI keyboard for building patterns. I'll record the notes for a pattern and then play it back in a loop to adjust the rest of the parameters. I use the other mapped controls live until I have what I want. I prefer having tons of physical controls ready to go for this part. I have a few project files I always start from and their corresponding templates are saved into the keyboard. Then I go into audacity and record my guitar, voice, or whatever else to a click and import them into the timeline. I think it's more important to have your workflow down than be distracted by new shiny toys.