@crayola painter is fine for raster brushes, and if that was what I currently wanted, I would still be using it

@albacore yes well, if I use the same [mapping type] pen and the same ink and the same stroke on:

canson bristol
saunders waterford
daler rowney drawing paper

I will get three different looking lines, due to the interaction of ink and paper; and further it will not even be 100% consistent [think sizing; think bleed]

You can imitate this to an extent in raster, with painter as mentioned, but so far not in vector - CS5 is a step in the right direction

Art [with the capital A] is called Art because you accept the line you get when you finally come to render - and the Art[ifice] is in taking it from there, even if it is not quite what you wanted - otherwise its not Art, its Craft...

just my way of seeing it