I've been asked multiple times on Steam's Portal 2 Workshop why I don't use the Map Maker. Rather than make several consecutive posts to fit my answer each time (1000 character limit), I'm going to put it here and link to it whenever I'm asked.
Opening Map Maker generated maps in Hammer results in 128x128x128 instances that are annoying to work with. I would have to make a replacer instance to substitute my desired wall thickness, realign and fill in tile gaps as a result of the replacements, cleanup and reapply all overlays, add and adjust lights, and tweak lightmap resolutions. By that time, I would have to scrap it all just to get whatever idea I wanted to implement in. Yes, I broke reasonable order and put all the work first to make it sound like a bigger deal.
Furthermore, I require the amount of flexibility Hammer offers to build my maps. I can't do what I do in the Map Maker. There are too many constraints, hidden entities, and limited features; it's just too restrictive. There is no prototyping my ideas in the Map Maker. I build from the inside out. Start with an element and add onto it. Starting from the outside-in is a hassle I don't want to deal with.
If I'm trying to make an idea a reality for the first time, I have no clue what I'm doing. How thick do I want walls? Pfft. How should I know? "Wow, making that brush a *insert brush entity here* really throws a curve ball" "This area's shadows are too strong/weak. I've got to adjust that." "But what if I...ya...that'll work!" "I want a custom texture there." "Huh, the engine supports more i/o than the fgd shows, better fix that"
So, mostly, it is me being stubborn and hiding behind personal preference. The other part is this: "Can you make a ferris wheel in the Map Maker?" I didn't think so.
Also, you are locked to the clean visual style with no option to break up tile textures how you see fit. Now, I admit, I've been defaulting to the clean style in my later maps, but the lack of style options is a big turn off. And I can see why they wouldn't have it.
Making the option would most likely be easy, but tedious. If you so much as use a laser, you've made your map unable to be used for 1970's Aperture. Foliage would have to be cleaned out if you changed from the destroyed theme. You want bts? Well, be sure to flag what walls you want to keep and hope that the generated vactubes won't mess up your map. What's that? There are no arms in Old Aperture, so much for those elements.
In short, I started with Hammer and that's what I'm used to. The random crashes, stupidly high memory usage, occasional failure to update assets, complete failure to reflect model changes on props, and graphical glitches are all familiar. This Map Maker is not a replacement for it. It is a way for people to break into mapping. Now, advanced Hammer users have created amazing maps in the Map Maker. I'm just not one of them.
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