Reply to Controllerism & Production

Hey all. New to the DJ/Controllerism scene. I'm currently a songwriter, but I'm getting into mixing/mastering and I do some producing/studio session work every now and then too. Looking to make a move at doing the whole recording/touring artist thing. It started when I bought the Kontrol S2 as a means to control VSTi's in an analog-type fashion. Started messing around with traktor because it came with it and now I'm really hooked on all these new sounds and styles. Not looking into becoming a DJ or anything, but I am learning the techniques and the style. Currently saving up to get a MF and a Hot Hand, but don't want to jump too far into it until I really get a hand on midi mapping quickly. I'm still a little confused about some things though.

1. Why Ableton? I haven't gotten too much information on it, but after going through a couple DAWs (Audition, Cubase, Sonar, Logic, and Pro Tools) I'm wondering about it. Currently I use Logic for production and Cubase/Pro Tools for recording/mixing(depends on who I'm doing it for). Is it mostly because of the extra software or is it a workflow thing?

2. VSTi's live? Normally when I use a VSTi in a song, I'll (usually) record it through a speaker so that it mixes well with normal recorded instruments. Do you guys literally just chop up your own stuff and trigger them or do you have some of the buttons set to control VSTi's

3. Do you ever assign effects to buttons? Like, maybe a button was set to move the mix knob on an effect by 5% or something like that

4. Do you guys ever use stepped encoders for anything that isn't a scroll/jog function?

5. Who inspires you guys? This seems like a pretty underground thing and it's a little hard to find information on it beyond gear stuff. Kind of hard to tell what is hip and what is cheesy and stuff.

6. How many MIDI controllers can you use at once? I've only used 2 at a time, but controlling the same thing(on the same channel). Logic gives me 16 channels, but wouldn't some sort of a wordclock for that much stuff? Especially when using an external soundcard like the S2 or a Universal Audio Apollo?