Sorry if this has been discussed 1000x times before - I am new to Wavelab but a user of Cubase since “VST”.
The look and feel of these two applications seem like they are from completely different companies - like Mac vs PC.
Why?
The simple answer (and Phillipe can correct me if I am wrong here) is that Wavelab was developed by a different programming team (largely a single programmer, I believe) than Nuendo and Cubase, and for a different purpose.
There is, or was, something to the Mac vs. PC thing, too, because Wavelab, unlike Nuendo and Cubase, was written for PC only until V7.
There are those among us who felt that this created a much more elegant program, and some of us feel like the rewriting for Mac has perhaps undercut that elegance, but we still use it and like it.