Exactly this. Physical synths are more fun to play with, explore, learn. You can feel you fully understand them (I challenge anybody to say they fully understan

Exactly this. Physical synths are more fun to play with, explore, learn. You can feel you fully understand them (I challenge anybody to say they fully understand every feature of every module of native instruments and arturia v collection, which together cost as much as a single mid range hardware synth :-). They are great for hobby and creativity, playing around and having fun, and in some ways for performance. They are tactile and immediate and physical. (Note that I am empathically not claiming "superior sound" in that list ;) Daws are practical for actually making and producing music. In reality though they can complement each other nicely. You can sketch on hardware and even integrate it into a daw. ---- My personal thought on superiority of sound is same as records and film - if you feel a particular specific past sound (or image) is the pinnacle of possibilities, soft synths will indeed asymptotically recreate it and may or may not ever recapture whatever "feel" it is that makes that specific sound superior to you. I came into this late and without preconception so all sounds are equally valid with no absolute framework and all synths CAN produce interesting cool useful and usable awesome sounds - I'd rather marvel at creativity and variety than endlessly try to recapture something previous (which even my favourite companies are sometimes stuck doing - how many ways can roland and others re re re re re create the Jupiter 8 sound?? Same for Moog etc) My 100 Croatian lipa and no more :-)