Hardware sells pretty well and has a longer shelf life than most plugins so it’s understandable its incentivised via influencers etc.
Personally I use a bit of both , the DAW is great but something...
Totally understand that and a lot of it depends on how we all get into music in the first place and then how we work with it from there. Mixing - I did have a Bluebox for my small desktop studio as I call it which is hybrid but I sold it. I want to go back to one with faders!!!