I'm with you on that as I'm one who even though I had Cakewalk back in 2002, I preferred to work with my hardware recording gear and syncing to my Atari for midi. I just couldn't get the audio part of a DAW to work the way I thought it should.  But the Atari blew up and I was forced to do midi on Cakewalk. It took 4 years for me to get that working because I was trying to use a Sound blaster card, Once I finally figured the ASIO driver lesson out all has worked better and better for me and I could never go back. 
Even though I have the full version of Sonar I find working in Home Studio rock solid and a joy to use. And really, if your used to hardware recording, you'll not find it lacking at all. I think there's overkill in the full versions, I will never use 1/4 of the stuff and they keep adding more and that makes the software buggy and unstable. Home Studio is the best version if you have no time or patients for being a beta tester. 
Example- count the thread titles of Splat users with issues, Now see if you can find a thread about a HS feature that is not working other than Pilot error. 

I was just getting used to the EL X1 but bought a Korg Midi controller and that's when I discovered that the soft synths/ plugins were not installed despite the Sonar programme having them listed in the 'tick box' for installation.
 
Having being nearly driven 'round the bend' I believe that this has been a positive occurrence and has prompted me to upgrade to Home Studio, that hopefully when I get HS installed I'll get the hang of it and have everything working.
 
I'm a musician but find the technical stuff very hard to comprehend at times. It would be great to have someone 'press the buttons' but I don't have that luxury.  
 
Just one wee thing please prior to installing HS...When I clean my PC of LE X1 Is there a chance that there may be any 'leftovers' from Sonar LE to cause glitches? or should it be just a matter of a straight Uninstall.
Best to all
JockStrat

I wouldn't think so. I have had a few old versions installed and installed new versions including Home Studio and it didn't cause any issue for me. 
Just un install X1Le and then I'd go into the computer/Drive C / Programs/ and delete anything that says cakewalk, Even do a search for Cakewalk and just delete all folders etc,
Then open Command Centre and download and install Home Studio. 

Thanks Johnny V and All for help and guidance. Great forum that's always up for helping 'poor souls' like me.
Best to all
JockStrat