Oh, there's always room for more gear!
And the PCI stuff is an excellent choice for many environments. I went that route myself for many years until the USB offerings were ready for prime time (and you're right, back in the day they weren't).
That said, the UR22 has two mic pres, and they're solid quality, very transparent. They also support phantom power so you could track vocals with a U87 if you had one. Naturally, with a transparent pre you won't get the coloration of outboard gear like Neve, Api or SSL, but those are creative choices, not requirements for quality work. Also, the mic pre is only one small part of a pro result. Gain staging, input chain, the mix, the mastering and of course the quality of the musicianship all factor in, just to name a few. If you know what you're doing, you can absolutely create radio quality work with this and many other USB audio interfaces.
That said, once upon a time your assessment of USB interfaces really was closer to the truth. Back when they were first starting to come out, many USB products didn't measure up to something like an RME PCI card. These days, however, there are lots of excellent quality interfaces out there. USB can be a factor in terms of overall bandwidth to be sure, although I've tracked 32 channels simultaneously without issues. Beyond that it really has little to do with USB - it's all about the quality of the converters.
In my studio, I have racks of SSL mic pres as well as some Neves. My audio interface that gets things to my PC is my Yamaha TF5 mixer, via USB, which appears as 32 ins and outs in my DAW. When I track vocals, I typically run mic -> Distressor -> SSL / Neve -> mixer channel (flat) -> DAW. The Distressor and SSL / Neves are for the characteristics they impart. I've also tracked vocals straight into the mixer. The quality of the resulting vocal track is just as good, it simply doesn't have the seasoning from the compressor and mic pre. Yamaha is among the mixers you'll see at FOH in 50,000 seat arena concerts, so they have some experience with quality mic pres. My point is that USB connectivity is completely irrelevant in this scenario. Good is good, bad is bad, and both can use USB.
The only reason I'm mentioning all of this (beyond the fact that it's just fun to talk about this stuff with friends
), is to make sure the OP understands that there's nothing wrong with the interface he owns. It's absolutely capable of producing pro work as long as he's got the requisite skills and gets his configuration issues sorted out.
Once upon a time, if you didn't have a $100,000 Pro Tools rig, you were a "hobbyist" (which, while I'm sure it wasn't your intention, is often offered as a dismissive insult, i.e. someone who is too much of an amateur to produce professional quality work). But technology marches on, and that hasn't been the case for many, many years. It's really astounding how much great gear is out there today at a price that anyone can afford.