it is so true.
what is even more disturbing is the fact that some of these issues we solved many years ago.
For example, the orignal korg oasys is a dream to listen to, i know i did not know how good a virtual analog could sound until i got the original oasys pci card. But this was how long ago, 10-15 years ago. I still fight tooth and nail to keep it going despite lack of support.
And with the pentium FPU problem - many programmers are opting for the "easy" way out by adding moise to low level signals when the signal gets low enough to cause the problem. So much for "pristine" mixing "in the box".
I have a lot of respect for "ear people", i am more a "math" person, but i have trained myself to go past the explanations when talking to ear people and listen to what they are really saying.
9 times out of 10 a good ear person will detect a problem before the math people figure it out.
thats why we need more ear people designers
if you throw enough money at the problem a good design is a no-brainer
but when you have to meet cost considerations you need an ear to determine which is the "best" solution
i think right now we seeing the most cost effective designs - not the best designs
(present company excepted
)