I haven't messed much with abletons timeline much, but I can send the midi out to studio one when I get loop sequences I like and record the incoming midi on the linear grid.

Ableton also has a shit ton of tools, instruments, effects, and other plugins that no one has duplicated in a standard vst.

So I'm not knocking ableton. It's does what it does and it does it well. I've seen guys do some really cool stuff in it.

Studio one is just more akin to protools. It's a full service, mix an album level daw.