Fully agree with most of what is said here.
Reason sound is actually saying I hear the sound of someone who didn't properly operate Reason.
You can accomplish more or less the same things with other quality DAWs out there. You gotta know how.
To me, Reason is a more natural way of sound design as it resembles more to stuff that communicates with me, stuff that I recognize, etc.
Just take some looks at the youtubes in the 52 reason record tips and you'll start understanding a lot more to the instruments in Reason. As it says, they are instruments. Then with record being implemented in 6, it got that kick ass SSL resembling mixing console integrated and it became an even more powerful tool for sound synthesis/designing/whatever.
I can't imagine that if you fully understand eq'ing, compression, effects, processing, how to operate that SSL like console and how to operate Reason with all it's possibilities, and a lot more, that you can't produce something that sounds decent.
Do ppl watch the artist stories?
Artist interviews - Learn Music Making and Production Tips from the Pros - Artist Stories - Propellerhead
There are some artists there who mainly do their stuff in Reason. Really big names. As if you hear some of those big names on the radio and go like "Yeah! That's definitely the Reason sound again..." .
If they do, than I'm gonna aim at getting that Reason sound as they're doing a hell of a good job making some wicked sounding tunes!