So basically, it seems that I'm criticizing Vegas because I don't know enough about how it works, and you're criticizing Reaper because you don't know enough about how it works, but we've both got a program that works for us. Actually, I've mostly been a ProTools user, but a friend turned me on to Reaper, and I think it's great as a mobile recording program (since it doesn't eat processors for lunch and has really well-designed plug-ins) plus the routing- which I find to be WAY easier to use than in ProTools- is great, and while some like the "ProTools sound" I'm getting a bit sick of it.

My signal chain isn't perfect, but things that aren't perfect can still get worse, and I like to prevent that where I can. Just because we can't notice something, it doesn't mean it makes no difference. Ordinary folk don't notice the same things the best mastering engineers notice, but those engineers still make a huge difference by changing tiny details that nobody else would pick up on.

Conclusion: different strokes for different folks.