When I was working in college radio we used to build quick liners and sweeps in Audacity instead of loading up the heavier programs (I can't remember what they were now actually - maybe Nexgen?) for editing and mixing.
You're right. I didn't meant to say that Audacity isn't for professionals. But in my experience most audio professional (like audio engineers) pick (or get picked by their educational institution) a tool early in their career and stick to it. Most of the times this tool is a full-fledged DAW in which they acquire quite a muscle memory. So switching tools later (even for simple tasks, which don't require a DAW) comes with a big "performance hit".
When I was working in college radio we used to build quick liners and sweeps in Audacity instead of loading up the heavier programs (I can't remember what they were now actually - maybe Nexgen?) for editing and mixing.