Newbie question on designing your own 'board' instead of using wires

The Only thing that Eagle has going is the price.. A Full Seat (all the Bells and Whistles) is less than $2K/Yr where an Atium Full seat is $6K/Yr @ $325/Mo.... Min 12 mo.

Eagle has a one-time purchase price. I have the pro commercial version, $1K for the schem and pcb module (no need for autorouter) - purchased about 5 years ago. I do NOT have to pay $1K every year.

While the other software, as you say, is $2K, $6K PER YEAR.... OrCad is $10K (not sure though if this is subscription or one-time).

In the end, everything ends up being a gerber file.

If the project works, that's the most important thing.

There are some "stupid" and "quirky" things I hate about Eagle... my experience being coming from AutoCAD (though I didn't use AutoCAD for PCB design).