Session View (aka "clip launching") represents more than just a workflow - it represents an idea of what music is.
Some people might want to spend their time arguing over whether or how much or when that idea is correct. I'd prefer to note that in the 25 or so years since its debut, the idea has reshaped so much contemporary music whether it is correct or not.
The idea that you build up music out of sections that potentially repeat, then move on to another section ... it all seems so obvious to us techno-centric geeks. It actually isn't how most of the world has traditionally conceived of music, but the language that has been traditionally used has often had a structure that has made it easy to strip out the complexities, and the result is ... Ableton Live's Session View.
You will not have that bad experience with Ableton!
I'm only ever in arrangement view when I'm finalizing the order of the sections before final mix down.
I found it faster to just record clips directly into the Arrangement view and not waste time on moving between different views. Right from the beginning, basic things like chopping audio or e.g. removing the last kick in a bar are a pain to handle in the Session view (creating a copy without that last kick). And once I start touching automation - which is basically from the start - Session view becomes irrelevant.
It’s trivially easy to make arrangement view your default view. You simply hit tab to switch the view to arrangement and then overwrite your default template in the ‘File’ menu. Now you’re set.
When I'm forced to upgrade to windows 11 I simply won't have Live anymore, because I won't be doing that, and so I haven't purchased the latest version and am starting to experiment with the alternatives. Makes me sad though, it'd be so great to have on Linux.
Any features in more recent Bitwig versions that stand out?
It would be cool if Bitwig would introduce a scripting environment similar to Max for Live.
Where they both fall down is in less capability for the piano roll and midi for more complex compositions and styles (orchestration) and although Live has made some moves towards improving that recently, they're both still way behind in that area.
Saying that, DAWs just have different specialization. E.g. for a long time midi support in ProTools was extremely limited. Cakewalk already had an excellent piano roll in the late 90s.