Do you remember which vid?
I’m in the midst of a gear shuffle lately because I find my Rytm super hard to use with the rest of my gear. I’ve only liked it as a totally isolated groovebox.
That said, and more along the lines of the OP, the Rytm is not my core gear, and I have a hard time making it fit my core gear.
I’m still curious about the idea of the islands.
I also use renoise / redux in a similar way 
It’s interesting. I have several synths. There are core things I go to but………once I get the core of the song worked out and I’m arranging I like to be able to reach for anything. I also find I like the subtle character of each synth. I have lots of old va’s. the Nord lead 1 is more warm and rounded than say the an1x. The an1x is brighter by nature. That’s not good or bad just different. I love these differences.
Since we’re in the Model:Cycles category…
I just put away everything except the M:C.
I don’t love the sound, but I think it’ll be much more immediate than with multiple options.
Also, it forces you to focus on the quality of your melody and chords, not mask the lack with sound design and fancy effects.
in order of planned out vs on the spot my core is: reaper, renoise and OT. for live impro OT or AR + DN or A4.
but despite it working for live, i’m having a hard time combining several elektron boxes as my core for writing. guess it’s the brain freeze of seeing all the possibilities of the boxes at once. if i see pics in the studio thread with 4 elektrons interconnected i get nauseous. I also completely understand people getting frustrated over using OT as main hub with other gear, for me it shines as nearly standalone groovebox (maybe add one synth) esp. if you invest some time in all the neat tricks combined (sample chains w/ scenes, cue feedback etc. ). it kinda hurts my heart if people end up using it ‘only’ as a glorified fx sequencer/mixer
its interesting, with DAW’s i totally do not care if they are open ended. with hardware i feel the need to know every little trick of the device even if i’m not going to use it. in that regard OT hits a limit of what a brain can manage on the spot imho. but still, me having a meaty list of feature requests 
That’s kinda the way I look at it lately, though I’ve taken it way outside its normal range so what I make on it is frequently final product worthy. I do wish it could load samples though, that’d be convenient and more fun than having a separate Model. (and I have a Digitakt but it’s not the same)
I have read on a YouTube video opening the Cycle that it has the exact same inside as the sample, so theorically the cycle could get samples in. It is probably more of a business decision that anything that it is so limited.
Something like a sample machine could probably work but this would put the model:sample to the bin at the speed of light.
I wonder what percentage of people who have one also have the other
If it’s not that high then it might actually help sales to combine them … and I’d buy it, and end up with two models anyway!! (no point in selling the Cycles it’s so cheap)
Realistically it’s probably not that easy to stuff both functionality into the ROM
I suspect that if they did (they probably wont), that it would work a bit like the Microfreak update, where you essentially replace the standard factory content with the sampling functionality.
Or maybe like Noise Engineering products where you can freely flash the firmwares between the different modules. i.e. you could turn your Cycles into a Samples but it can’t be both at once.
I feel like with where they’re sat in the Elektron lineup, and with Elektron not really being a budget brand, that they’d rather you just buy both 
What a great idea. I would love that. The factory content on mine is just sitting around like an old dog turd.
Oh of course they’d rather you buy both. 
If anybody’s wondering, my core is still Model:Cycles, but I’ve added a perma-connected Virus and a Digitakt which acts as an alternative to the M:C. It would be so lovely to have some more machines for M:C, really maximize the DSP in it. (Even if it sampling isn’t happening!)
The concept does kind-of describe my approach. I’ve tried really hard to work entirely outside the box, and still might get there with my existing set-up, but everything is centred around Ableton at the minute. Although, I’m often using it more as a flexible mixing system with insert effects on the various hardware instrument channels plus sends.
My current live set is all in Ableton, based on a small handful of synth/sample plug-ins, driven by midi clip loops. Hardware synths are icing on the cake for gigs and are the elements which I have live control over in terms of modulation etc. That gives me a scaleable approach, depending on how much stage space I have to fill and how much car space I have. All the hardware synths go into Ableton, where the effects are applied.
Beyond embedded firmware revision, does the M:C have a full 1GB flash memory?
On the topic: my “core gear” is what I know and am fastest with, which is occasionally at odds with the stuff I love to just listen to and not complete tracks with.