Aaah - so this is the reason why Elisa, which I installed through flatpak is like : «I dont know how to play this file, I can only play audio files» when i try to drag&drop wavs/oggs to it. Yes, hundred percent agree - this is unacceptable behaviour when it comes to ux. I hope it will be fixed.

I found bitwig to be really easy to use coming from Ableton. I am also keeping an eye out and supporting the ZRythm development and I hope it can become a decent FOSS alternative.

I have been on the same quest. I have used Ableton on mac/windows and I’m eyeing Bitwig. I tried Ardour for a little bit, but never gelled with it. Ardour would probably be fine if I did some effort on learning the interface, but I didnt find it that intuitive.