People have made hit records with simple tape decks and vinyl decks. Just because you can make a hit record doesn't describe the complexity of the instrument. The MPC Live is stupidly simplistic. There's no way around that.. no marketing bullshit can spin the truth once you look even a little bit deeper.
Just look at the lack of modulation you can do on the filter. You can literally modulate the filter with the envelope only in one direction. Several other parameters can also be modulated only in one direction. The unit is littered with these limitations at the very core of it's operation.
These are quirks.. not features. Not "workflow". People keep calling the MPC stupidly limited and archaic operation "workflow". It's not. It's just archaic and silly.
Give a basic iPad with some samples to a talented artist and they can create a hit record. Heck even FL Studio way back in the day when it couldn't do almost anything was used to create hit records. It's beside the point.
Just look at all the MPC youtube tutorials. They are ridiculously simplistic and obvious.. because the unit is ridiculously simplistic and obvious (limited).
Don't get me wrong, it's gotten better with each update. The last two updates were pretty significant but neither of them addressed simple lacking core issues nor did they drastically improve the archaic operation (though they did improve it a bit with the ability to use shift+pad to select a menu directly).