Well obviously, and PG has already issued quite decent bass VSTi, both acoustic and electric, to use for that sort of purpose if one is so inclined. But that also means one would, for better or worse, be making those solos yourselves, which not everyone might feel up to scratch to decently pull of. And then, with the "real deal" you would just get something far more advanced and nuanced (eg slides & glisses etc) than the average user could, or at least not without investing some serious time and effort into some pretty intense midi tweaking.
Or, in short: The real deal is very much preferable