Sonically the differences are decreasing. I use plugins all the time and have had 2 today that are better 100% ITB. Big deal. Not using 'the fancy boxes' kind of feels even more slutty than using them
But all the sonics aside there's just no getting around the fact that working with analogue feels very nice. Especially with something passive, I'm not sure if/how you can replicate that experience in software. It's like playing an instrument.
In fact that's
exactly what it feels like! Closing my eyes and working with analogue feels like it does when I'm playing the drums. Calling up GUIs and using the mouse and editing one parameter at a time feels like programming drums in midi.