Well I certainly dont jump onto VST plugin threads and suggest that people should go out and buy an Access virus because VST plugins are shit. You have a thread here where some guy with a limited budget wants to buy a piece of hardware, and gets told to just use abelton & a controller. Then you have people who "have used more hardware than I have seen" saying this is shit & that is shit when in fact they dont actually own the aformentioned piece of kit (and actually liked the sounds from it).
If someone wants to spend money on hardware. Encourage them dont discourage them. If someone want to use a wholly software setup the same goes. But please let them experiment.