Hi Joey!
I completely understand people like you who feel ok working with a DAW and some kind of hardware or without it.
But then there are people like me who spend 9 hours a day in front of a screen (two in my case) and just don't want to spend any more with them when we arrive home.
So... We all agree that it's impossible to be as flexible as a DAW on the hardware side, but sometimes hardware wins the match.
Have you tried korg emx1, elektron monomachine or spectralis?
I'll never feel the same feeling putting notes on one of those three machines than doing the same on live, reason, pro tools or whatever.
Believe me, I've tried and tried but it just don't work for me. And I'm not alone
Cheers!