I see there's both Home Studio & SONAR Home Studio, but I'm not sure what you can't do with Music Creator that you can with these.  I'm an old Pro Audio User.  Thanks!

Home Studio is an ancient program.
SONAR Home Studio is also old, but not quite ancient.
Neither is legitimately available unless you find it in a On Sale bin at your local store.
Music Creator can't handle as many tracks and effects/soft synths as SONAR Home Studio, but I've never approached that limit in any version of my Cakewalk software (I've had MC 2003, MC Pro 24 and am currently using SHS 6 XL).

I agree.... while MC is called a "beginner's" program, it is, in my opinion, far from being a beginners program. 

As Greg said, in all the projects I worked on MC4, I never came close to the track limits..... The one thing that may present an issue for some is that MC only can handle 2 live inputs at a time. For me in my project studio, that is not an issue. If you record live bands all miked up, it may be a sticking point..... in which case X2 essentials would get you the inputs you need. 

All the bells and whistles that come with X2 producer, are again, IMHO, not really needed for what I do, so I'm satisfied to work in a basic DAW such as MC or X1 essentials.