Dongles delicate? Nonsense. You can drive a tank over any plastic dongle and it will still work. Besides if Steinberg had a software key and PROtools had a dongle I’d say the same voices would be heard clamouring for a dongle.
If Cubase is unusable… It’s YOU. The guys that can’t cope with a dongle and keep losing their housekeys (with dongle attached) or letting it fall out of their pocket or have it stolen because it’s right there ready to go…
As far as I can tell Cubase is a lot older than most of the complainers here. This means that the dongle has a reliable history. Users aren’t losing dongles in droves otherwise it would make the daily news. Which means that there’s about three people who are really unhappy with the arrangement.
I’d rather trust Steinberg’s security than some kid (ex-kid even) on the net who thinks an old joke is a new idea. 