Back to the original question - can make something useful? Sure you can. Based on a video from w2aew showing a
using a '555 and two OpAmps I went and
did the same with a PSoC4 (a CY8C4245). And yes, you can solve something like this without needing software, just the pure PSoC hardware is enough. Apart from the needed passives and a diode, of course. I wanted to also do the follow-up showing a transistor curve tracer, but never had the time for it
If this is to small for your likes: my first PSoC project was a 2-channel 1Msps scope+8 channel logic analyzer (up to 32k samples depending on what you sampled), with LCD GUI and SUMP desktop connectivity, and quite some triggering capabilities. Apart from the LCD this did not need any external components, just a single PSoC5 chip. Unfortunately I never came around writing everything down in detail, but I have a video of it somewhere.
Compared with other MCUs the PSoC is still my go-to prototyping platform. You are so much faster in setting up something that starting a VM with W7 (or W10) is worth it. The component setup is simple (no need to learn strange CMSIS APIs just to set up I2C or something like that), ans the APIs that you need to use are mostly simple and straightforward. Documentation is always a mouse click away, no need to search in 1000 page documents (like for Atmel or TI) which only scatter the needed information in many places anyway.
As for the criticism above:
- component updates: Cypress can and will fix errors in their components, just in software, without new silicon. If you want to live with the errors, fine, they will not force you to update. You can also choose to live with 20 page erratas from other MCUs.
- XP support / 32bit: well, you can stay with GCC and vi. Anything else will stop supporting this platform probably sooner than later for their current products. And they are right - using a platform where you will never ever get any security bugfixes and which is connected to the internet should be a criminal offense now.
- Akamai: you are not forced to use it. The last time I did was like 5 years ago or so (because I clicked in the wrong place).
- download size: compare it with CCS, MPLABX, Attolic and the likes, and they are not that much smaller. Creator switched (with 4.1 IIRC) to a more incremental model where you get component updates, board support packages and examples only when you need them.