Gerry, there is no need to be as aggressive, as I said Im only stating my point of view, which although it differs from yours is no less valid.
As for my music, you can check out my mp3s on
www.soundclick.com/syrath, on the page there are only a few I recommend that are worth listening to however I keep the good, the bad and the ugly up there. Im far from being an excellent musician, although I did get runner up (3 months iirc) in the Project5 featured musician of the month, as well as holding the no1 spot on the soundclick IDM chart 3 or 4 times.
However when it comes to my music I dont think its a competition where we compare how good our tunes are. This does not make either of us more professional. Im just a guy that plays a bit of guitar (also, although not on any of those tracks), that likes to use the comptuer to make music.
For a living though I do DAW tutorial video production and voice over work. As a result of this I do have a lot of "professional" DAW software, and as I said Reason, Cubase ( the "industry standard"), Sony Vegas, Logic Audio Platinum V 4.5, or any of the other software I have.
It is just that I dont think that mp3 encoding is high up on my priority list for making any of the professional things that I do. It is only useful for my amateur music, for me to upload it to the soundclick website. Hardly a professional usage if you ask me.
You use the anology that 8$ doesnt break the golden egg, well neither does $20, so your own argument is flawed here.
$8 for every song making product and every update that I own does however add up. Id be paying about $100 per year on mp3 encoders(exaggerated but not by much).
Professional does not imply that you have the tools to produce internet ready music, a professional DAW has the capability of making professional Digital Audio, this does not need to include MP3, although it is definitely handy for many that may want to use an internet delivery system.
However even with low bandwidth these days uploading a 16 bit or 24 bit 44.1 khz file doesnt take that long, neither does downloading it. So in a professional hand over from one person to the next having it in full CD audio quality or better is more prefered by professionals than mp3, certainly in my experience as a DAW tutorial video producer and voice over "artist".
Those that know the work I have done will probably agree that if I had encoded my voice overs to mp3, that it would definitely be undesirable
.