You could run just those programs in a VM inside OS X if you felt like giving OS X a whirl. Have you investigated with The Google to see if those programs either A: have Mac versions, or B: have a replacement on OS X?
To answer your actual question, yes there are those that do it, it works just fine. Not sure if they ever fixed the fan issue (it used to be that on intel Macs, in Windows, the fans would turn on earlier than they would in OS X, the software controlling it wasn't that great), and aside from the CTRL key being in a weird place it will work just like a Windows laptop.
As for other systems that are on par... There is the Samsung Series 9, their 13" has a 1366*768 display, and it is a little more expensive, but it is just about as thin and light and the battery life should be about the same in Windows. Some will tout the 3 year warranty that comes standard on it (if you get 3 years of AppleCare on the MBA it tallies out to about the same) however, if you have an Apple Store within an hour of where you live, then that blows anyone else's warranty out of the water.
There is the Lenovo Thinkpad x220. Little bit heavier and thicker, but it has more connectivity and can be upgraded to an IPS (read: really great for a laptop) display. Another option is the Lenovo X1, that is (I think) more expensive than the Air, but it is a Thinkpad.
Something to consider, an Apple laptop running Windows is going to have a trackpad that is a little bit better than any other Windows laptop, it is very large, supports 2 finger scrolling and clicking (place two fingers on the pad and click/tap to 'right' click) and does so better than any other Windows machine I have tried. An Apple laptop running OS X has a trackpad that is lightyears ahead of anything that any other manufacturer has. Imagine it being like if one computer had a Core i5 2nd Gen, and every other system was running a P4m.
