While it may not be a popular but Sonar is very, very good at working with loops.  In some ways it's better than Live.  You have a bigger window to work with.  Both programs you don't have to deal with quantization issues.
 
  I've tried working with loops in Reaper, Reason Tracktion, Studio One, and Live. Sonar doesn't turn it into a rocket science. A GUI has a lot to do with it.
 Reason updated their app to make it more friendly to new users.  To import a loop you have to use ALT for it to match a project tempo.  You can't detach the browser. 
 Tracktion - they have too many shapes on the imported audio to confuse you.
 Some of these apps you have to keep pressing a key to duplicate.  With Sonar you CTL +L, drag the mouse and done. You can do all sorts of fancy things with Live but as for something that's easy on the eyes Sonar seems to top them.
 
 

AND you can edit and create Acidized files. That's huge, given that Sony seems to have pretty much left Acid at version 7, and many "acidized" files aren't edited very well so you need to edit them so they stretch properly.
 
I also like that in the Loop Construction window, you can alter pitch, panning, and level for each slice. Great for special effects.

That was the point of Sonar when it first came out. It added great looping to MIDI and Audio. Plus the track view was a whole new idea. All other DAWs had a track view but none had what CW had done with it.  Now its nearly perfect. 
 
Why have I stuck with it all these years?  Because it is the least difficult to use with the greatest power. 
 
It just keeps getting better and better! Nuts, now I want X4 to ship! Can't wait!
 
 

For me, it used to be its customizable tool bars, colors and track strips.  I am hoping that full toolbar and color options return.  But other than that, it actually records sound (well, digital info after sound is converted); without that, a hundred features would not make it good.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

Perspectives are a funny thing.  I used to work with drum machines making little patterns that were chained together into songs, and simple home computer MIDI sequencers that worked the same way.  When I first bought Cakewalk for Windows 3.1, I was actually worried that it would be hard to transition to a linear non-pattern sequencer.  Of course, now I can't imagine going back to what I used to do.
 
It is very cool that Sonar has matured to do many different things equally well.