Few points: a) people like having the original thing, even if it can be replicated. (I think this generalizes fairly far across musical instruments, old ones a

Few points: a) people like having the original thing, even if it can be replicated. (I think this generalizes fairly far across musical instruments, old ones are always coveted by some, and into many different topics) b) Limitations of the circuitry etc that affect the sound can be surprisingly hard to precisely simulate. For cult machines that's probably something someone has done, but it's a lot of work. c) as you said, physical interfaces are important, as are the restrictions of what an instrument can't do the guide where people go with it d) people will fight tooth and nail about b) and if a specific simulation is good or not - and often you can assume that the range of how the originals sound is actually also quite large (especially now, with the components having aged a few decades), so you'll always find someone who is sure the software doesn't sound exactly like the one specific device they compare it to.