Lugia you sound a little angry hah. And lol, its certainly not about modular 'looking cool' in fact, it would be easy to make the argument that most modular gear suffers from pretty poor user interfaces (the opposite of a good VST/Kontakt instrument)... which is why i'm here asking these question.
But yeah, if basically the only thing all you guys are telling me is that Merzbow type messed up sounds and drones is the kind of stuff that modular does best then yah, ill probably stay in the box because to me, as experimental as I am with music and sound... melody is still key. Maybe ill do this drum rig modular setup ive been planning for years... but even then... I think a teenage engineering device could do more interesting stuff then 5 grand worth of modules. What are most of you guys here trying to do with modular? Or does a lot of it have a lot to due with the addiction of new modules/gear in general? I have that addiction so don't worry, im not judging clearly... I am generally curious though, if everyone here is telling me that pads are generally/practically impossible to do with a synth that is built, then what are the type of sounds you are all chasing?
U-he Bazille for instance, is a very cool digital modular system, and thats definitely capable of some beautiful melodic sound, as well as absolutely gross nonsense that is great to mess with obviously. And there are some even better stuff that can be done with reaktor across the board.