Could you explain why would you like to keep some fish without trying to imitate their natural habitat as much as possible? I do know this forum has a load of people who tend to grade their peers on basis of how big and many fishes they have but does anybody ever think about the wellbeing of the fishes?
Maybe the aquarium hobby culture ( and the forwardness in spoken/written word
) is different compared to what we have in Finland but believe me there is much more in fish keeping than just the fishes themselves. Besides, good looking planted tank with good layer of substrate, some hiding places in old tree stumps and proper technique will be like an frame to a painting called clown loaches. I should know better because having one.
I generally don't understand people who use some blue artifical sand, some crappy plastic miniature castle ruins, plastic plants etc in their tanks. That is just plain tacky. And to be honest, I think keeping aquarium without a substrate will fall under the same category.
Till the end I have to emphasize that I did not mean this to be any personal attack towards you but mere a thought giving opinion that may lose it's best edge when trying to interpret my thoughts in english.