How anyone can even suggest MIDI intruments sound anywhere NEAR a real instrument being played by a real person is totally beyond me!

I have used MIDI for over 30 years, I have used guitar and bass emulation programs, I have used guitar and bass synths (including Kontakt, RealStrat Real Guitar and most of the other bass and guoitar synths/emulators), I have used keyboard techniques to re-create guitar playing...however none, and I mean NONE of these comes close to the real deal.

At best they get you by and worked okay in the past when audio and the manipulation of same was very primitive.

About the only instrument genre that is "okay" with MIDI is drum/percussion and even then it needs to be a really good synth to pull it off.

And the attitude that "it's good enough for audiences who probably cannot tell the difference" is quite arrogant and disrespectful IMO. Audiences CAN tell the difference, no matter how "tricked up" the MIDI part is. And THAT is the salient point. MIDI guitars and basses NEED to be "tricked up" with all sorts of controls to even get close to sounding authentic. The real thing, well, it just "is"!