Fair; I get that if we're simulating a physical system and just trying to be as faithful as possible, the virtual one will look just like the physical one, and

Fair; I get that if we're simulating a physical system and just trying to be as faithful as possible, the virtual one will look just like the physical one, and inherit its limitations. But I guess by "this" I mean "making the sounds I want to make". If I'm interested in composing modular software components into a synth without regard to its physical analog, a wider range of designs is available for how "composition" or even "component" are reified. But the patch-cables-between-2d-boxes paradigm still seems dominant in that domain too, from my casual browsing of it.