Yep. In the terms I use, it's another instance of "the medium is the message", and if the medium is an edifice of mechanisms to configure the medium - well, you

Yep. In the terms I use, it's another instance of "the medium is the message", and if the medium is an edifice of mechanisms to configure the medium - well, you have trouble communicating a message. So in an actual workflow, most of the DAW will go unused at any moment, for the same kinds of reasons that most of Excel is unused most of the time. The process will traverse and pingpong various paths that loop outside of the software. The tools don't make the rules, but they suggest a path of least resistance. It's an old problem within software itself and not really addressed until the individual puts their foot down and says, "This. This is the medium, these are the restrictions, this is the way I structure everything." At that point it's possible to define perfect software, but we're too fickle to really get there.