yeah, its all in the ears really.
And its about your own perceptions of the limitations of your way of working. I personally would find it very limiting, but perhaps someone who approaches thier work in a different way would find it less so..

i have a fair feeling Mark Broom uses fruity actually, but i am somewhat unsure about the sonic qualitys of his work... :?

I think though, as ive said b4, a really experienced person with great ears could make a better sounding tune on a laptop with fruity than an un-experienced person could in sonys main studio...