Extra cost? No, that is the price for the full Monty with Reaper. Unless you go commercial and the price increases.
I have. It was a bit menu driven for me. It 'IS' however a DAW that i consider to be as good as the big ones, from the opinions of educated members here that use it regularly. Like I said, it comes down to how you interact with the way the software is written and your particular opinion. You pretty much have to try them to know. However, if you spent all of your time trying to learn every DAW without fully understanding one, well you will be in the learning curve for 5 years easy. Feel them out. Pick one, and spend the next year or so learning everything about it before changing. IME, it takes a good 6 months of daily use before you can actually know the software enough to form an educated opinion.