IMO 'creative' stuff like Ableton, FL, Bitwig etc is the way to go for someone starting out over Reaper, Cubase, Logic and the like. All of it's daunting as a beginner but I think having software that's intentionally build for experimentation and improvisation is a lot more 'encouraging' than traditional DAWs built for recording and editing. I remember starting out with FL and Cool Edit Pro (lol) and thinking back I don't even know if I would have bothered with CE if I wasn't recording into it. I'm glad I figured it out since once I moved to Ableton it helped a lot, but that side of things was always way more boring than actually composing in FL was.
Hm, I only used Ableton (somewhat extensively) so I can't talk about more linear focused DAW, but one problem I had with the loop based approach that it often led to myself to myself not finishing tracks or making to repetive stuff.
I would come up with some beats, some chords (I mainly made old school house or Nu Disco style stuff). It sounded somewhat nice after an hour of fiddling. Then I pasted that stuff into the arrangement view and tried to built a track around it. In most cases, it ended up as sounding incredibly repetetive - and that in genre that's knwon for being repetetive.
I believe, at least for some people, that the focus on loops leads to ideas that don't work for full tracks. A more linear focused DAW might help to come up with more fleshed out songs or more focus on a creative arrangement.
Or I just suck at making music, could also be
On topic, I think I will buy the KORG Gadgets for the switch. Seems like a nice tool to come up with some sketches. And I also need to find my license number for Ableton again, maybe I get some time for making music this summer...
@Toku: Are the ATH-M50x comfortable? Sold my Yamaha HS80 so I need something to make music again.