This without a whole additional API for developers to learn and understand - and it will also make it fairly easy to convert an application into a plugin or vice versa. The first problem is already showing signs of going away. Some vendors have already released programming specifications for studio audio cards, and there seems to be an increasing interest among the rest. Hopefully, the late Linux developments on the technical side will increase this interest further. Developers don't want to write applications for platforms without users, and users can't use a platform that has no applications.
Someone has to start the movement by releasing a useful and powerful application.
That is, taking the risk of entering a new market. There are users who have been using these applications for years. And there are lots of users that would do anything to get rid of Microsoft Windows or MacOS in their setups. It's not for everyone to buy out of the reliability and performance problems by turning to dedicated recording and processing hardware. No other general purpose OS is capable of that.