it's somehow insane. What's a microcontroller anyway?

Black pinned box with memory code and I/O. Write whatever you want on, they will do the job.

Cypress, Freescale, Ti, Zilog, StMicroelectronics and ALL new monthly brands you could see in EP&T and Electronic Design magazine... who will care as they do their job?

Yes some are more powerful, some less. Microchip ofer many different range of microcontroller, from the most stupid 10F to DsPIC. I use them all, i love 'em all. But yes, in some case i may need to use another brand for more powerful application. It's called, BlackFin.

Get the job done and that's it.

The software developer have something to do with it.