Agreed, you never use plugins to record, only to mix.  If you record with them, you can't undo it.  Plug-ins are purely for the mix / post-production.

And if the pre-amp/ mics are good, a laptop is perfectly fine for tracking excellent audio, I would not think twice - the data rate is minimal. The room is far more important than the computer it's tracked on.  As for 96K? Why bother? It makes it way more cumbersome (at least 4 times the file size), but IMHO is pointless since no one can hear the difference. Except maybe dogs.