New to X3 after years of Pro Tools

The reality is that you can make music with any DAW that exists today, just like you can drive to the supermarket in any car. However, some cars are more fun to drive than others .
 
I have a friend who was unhappy with PT and the Mac, so he switched to Cubase on Windows. It still didn't "click" for him. I advised him to try Sonar. Sonar?!? Well, he did, and the first thing he said after he'd figured it out was "it put the fun back into recording."
 
As to better-sounding mixes, I have a theory about that. I've often found it's the shoot-from-the-hip instincts that make music exciting - that first take before you started thinking about it too much, the time when you were messing with a mix and did things you weren't "supposed" to do. Sonar's workflow makes it easier for me to capture initial impulses and ideas. It's made a huge difference in songwriting because I can get the basis of a song down really quickly, while the inspiration is still there. I do end up editing and tweaking, but they have a firm foundation.
 
Regarding stability, I think you'll find over time that some bugs are pilot error, and others are more like annoyances that have relatively easy workarounds. There are very few "show stoppers;" those tend to be only for specific workflows, and I have yet to find one that matters to how I make music (and I push Sonar pretty hard) where I couldn't figure out a workaround. Certainly, Cakewalk's pace of updates is pretty amazing these days.
 
You'll be happy with the switch. No software is perfect, but Sonar has a high inspiration factor, and that counts for a lot.