If you're worried about the sub not showing up, use a different sub. Try this: start with a saw, put a sharp high pass around 40 Hz, and use a low pass to get it into sub range. Then use a limiter to keep it at a consistent volume. This should work down to about an A (27.5 Hz). It might not be as heavy, but you won't be stuck in the same key that literally everyone else uses, and your track will stand out.

Ooh, that's a good trick. Thanks!

I think if/when I get to a point where I want to release music for monetary value instead of for free, I would want to utilize another engineer's ears just to make sure I'm not completely biased in any way, but I think the idea of "killing your baby" can be easy or hard, depending upon what you're used to. I went to university for journalism and broadcasting before getting into music, and my News Editing 1 professor very bluntly confronted us with the analogy of killing your child when it came time to get your work ready for print almost weekly - People aren't interested in details, they want the news. It doesn't matter if you think it's important; you gotta cut anything that's not necessary and make it consumable for the average person. So while I'm certainly not immune to bias, I think I've developed a very shrewd mindset when it comes to sacrificing a concept or idea that I'm really attached to if there is a way I think it can be more appealing or enjoyable (without sacrificing my integrity, of course).

Use some form of multiband compression/limiting on your master channel when you're finishing a track, even if you don't plan on doing a lot of actual compression. Being able to get your low end steady and mono while giving your upper treble that big stereo wide effect goes a long way towards making a song go from good towards great.

Or do what I did, get the free player and buy expensive powerhouse libraries like output's Exhale.

I'm so interested in that synth, haha. How do you like it? Worth the buy?

I like using the Granulator Max for Live plugin instrument for anything really atmospheric. Metallic sounds and vocals are pad city.

it amazes me how many effects are actually built off the use of delay

The miracles of phase never cease to amaze. 

Keep in mind most DAWs have chord creators, scale constrainers, and arpeggiators as MIDI effects/piano roll features. Music theory isn't essential thanks to stuff like this, but it keeps you from having to stab in the dark so to speak when you're trying to get something inside your head down into the DAW. My best advice would be to learn the names of all the notes (CDEFGAB, with all but B and E naturally having a sharp note one semitone (from a white key to a black key on a keyboard or from one of the white keys to a white key right next to it without any black keys in between) that is written the same but with a # next to it (C#, D#, etc.).

From there, learn the scale degrees: Root (R), Minor Second (m2), Major Second (M2), Minor Third (m3), Major Third (M3), Perfect Fourth (P4), Augmented Fourth (+4), Perfect Fifth (P5), Minor Sixth (m6), Major Sixth (M6), Minor Seventh (m7), Major Seventh (M7), and Octave (P8). Some degrees have multiple names (Minor Sixth is also Augmented Fifth, Octave is also Perfect Eighth, and then there are the diminished notes), but if you can memorize these thirteen degrees in order you'll be good to go!

If you're going from C (the first white key before the group of two black keys) to the next C above it, every single note going up including the black keys correlates to the thirteen degrees of the scale. Go to a site like musictheory.net and check out their Ear Training Exercises. It will make you comfortable with what the different degrees sound like in relation to each other. Eventually it will be almost like second nature to you, and you'll realize that the melody in your head goes something like "Root, Minor Seventh-Perfect Fifth-Minor Third, Perfect fifth-Perfect Fifth, Minor Seventh-Octave", or that the main melody in Knife Party's PLUR Police is P5 +4 m3 R R R, m7 (the one two semitones below it, not ten above) m3 M2 m7 (below) R R R, with the Root note being F (the first white key before the group of three black keys). Go listen to the drop of PLUR Police then try to play along using the scale degrees I mentioned. See if things start to click.

From there, all you need is practice and time!

Serum is my go-to "make a sound" synth, I use Sonic Academy's Kick as my primary kick sound, and I've really been liking u-he's HIVE for pads and arps lately.