of course there is chief.
soil is a useful thing indeed.
sometimes a project just requires soil.
those who have seen my work, realize i use about everything.
i use sand , dirt, various soils, rockwool , coir and pure hydro even.
its about grow engineering.
it all depends.
id like to think in terms of a full range of possibilities.
and use the best medium at hand , for the circumstance.
observe the year old golf ball below..........
it started on sand, was briefly on rockwool, then all hydro, and then full re root on soil !
( under LED)
so it all depends, in my case, i outgrow the mediums quickly.
after a point, soil, is the most practical for golf ball size and up, for long term grow.
we do use rockwool, but we minimize it, as i dont want a bunch of rock fiber /dust around my lab.
more often than not, we graft straight from sand sprouts a few weeks old,
and rockwool is usually reserved for backlogged seed specimens.
rockwool is a great way to rack up thousands of specimens in a small space though.