I agree with Sundance that riff-based Soloists would be great.
I've done the cut and paste thing, moving phrases around, changing a single note in a phrase, etc.
What would be really cool is a Soloist generator where you can program the speed, intensity, range, direction (up and down), and number of notes for a solo - in much the same way that Holds, Shots, etc can be programmed for Chord progressions - With Selectable Preset Soloists and/or create your own.
Currently, the Real Tracks pretty much blow away MIDI trying to do anything similar, not to mention that they sound better than what most of us can do with real instruments.