i have spent many nights sitting around the (propane) campfire pontificating with friends about what is the 'best' camper. The answer is always that there is no one best camper, they each have their strengths and weaknesses. We owned a 13' Casita briefly, and it was a nice camper, warm, quiet, comfortable and relatively well built. It was great to be able to leave it as a base camp.
However, towing has some pretty major downsides - it was never particularly relaxing to drive with a trailer. This is magnified on unpaved and rough roads. We also really like to wander, see what is down that spur, maybe a great hike or camp site - this is much less fun with a trailer as it is really easy to get yourself in a world of hurt where you need to back a trailer up 1/2 a mile on a two-track. Also one of the really nice things about the FWC is that you can often find isolated camps, even in busy areas as you can drive a little further than most other campers.
How about a van based camper? Even a 2wd sprinter with a small lift BFGs and a limited slip will be much more confident on unpaved or rougher roads than towing, with a huge slider door, and hard sides. The other appealing part about a van is being able to pull in, sleep, cook and leave all without needing to get out of the van - great for rest area camping on long road trips. Loading on the roof is a pain, but they do make drop racks, or a kevlar or inflatable boats are an option. Or even a boat trailer if the canoe is only on a small fraction of trips.
