Being in the industry for many years, I have to say Hardware is becoming less and less used. Most of my old synth now cover dust as I find it much easier to create edit and manipulate on pc. Don't get me wrong, I still use hardware to play ideas out that have been lingering in my head and once the idea and concept is there it goes straight into DAWS. This whole argument is also limited to the genre as you wont find many country music artists using FL or Reason.
With that said depending on genre you will narrow down which sequencers artists choose and these days Production Software is like a pair of cloths. Some producers get paid to use/promote certain products because people who look up to them will follow. Also the question of which software is the best, has become completely obsolete as most sequencers do the same, the only difference is the user interface. The sound that you get out of a software is only as good as the user is.
I learned back in the 90's on fast/music tracker and than got into Fruity and have been using it ever since. I got many times to a point where I thought if I changed software I will sound like that other guy but that is not true. I look at abelton and wonder where the heck do I start so I went back to the drawing board, researched and read the FL bible again and again until I got the software to do what I wanted it to.
Sorry to crap on but my advise is (depending on the genre you produce) buy the software, read, watch, study, try & fail until whatever is in your head your able to translate into your setup. This doesn't happen over night and will take sometime maybe years as you constantly discover new stuff and learn new ways of doing things. Don't listen to people who say this is better than that because those people spend years with that software and know it from the inside and out. Don't do your head in by researching tracks and artists that produce in different sequencers. Everyone has the capability of loading/manipulating samples, adding vsti's, adding midi hardware etc... How you make it sound comes from your experience with the software and your own talent levels.
Just my two cents.
Christian