Indeed they all shine and suck.
Pro tools has some embarrassing behaviour. It was unusable for me for a while to record on Mac. It’s better now but I’ve moved to windows as a result.
Still I’ve found other daws that do their thing very well, but none that can beat PT at what it does best for me. But that’s a very specific tool set.
Indeed. Horses for courses.

Hey, dusting off this thread a little bit.

So say I'm learning the ropes for video post prod work. I'm still unsure where this would lead except the fact that i've been making sound design on animations, motion designs, etc, for fun during the past decade. I think I have an ear for it by now but since it was just a hobby I didn't bother to go out of my little Ableton Live and explore.
I know there are plenty of paths though so I intend on being multi-skilled over time and dip into things like dialogue editing / mixing / ADR, conforming, version control, learn more about loudness, QC, metadata, working with surround.

But yeah, lately i've grown exhausted with my career choice and I need to make a new leap. I'm still going to keep my job but on the side i'd like to prepare my options, learn, practice and see where it leads over the next few years.

Anyway, my first move has been to avoid time-waste and go for Pro Tools as the industry standard, that way I keep more doors open.
But i've always had this habit of diving full depth into everything I do because i'm obsessed about "not missing out". I hate wasting my time and love to be efficient so I always try to plan ahead especially when going into something foreign to me.
The rub here is Studio vs Ultimate. I've started to read up on the extra features and I see that not paying for Ultimate i'd notably miss the more advanced automation options and surround capabilities among other things.

Are there workarounds for these ? Is it worth it to stick with Studio anyway ?