Well, it kind of depends on what kind of player you are. I come from playing organ...left hand chords, right hand melody. With drum machine built in and newer instruments had accompanyments too. Todays arranger is yesterdays electronic organ, so to speak.

I am not a piano player, nor am I a top notch classically trained musician. I play for fun and to entertain friends/family.

AND I don't ever play in groups on stage.
AND I don't play much modern music. No screeming distortion guitars here...ever, Classic acoustic guitars ot clean Strat..Oh yes!

So, it's a lot easier for me to play some nice music on an arranger than on a Motif or other PRO synth.

I have had a Kurzweil K2600X and it doesn't get much better than that as far as PRO synth quality sound goes. Now they have the PC3 with up to 16 arp's playing!

I had a PC3 here for a week...awsome...but it is not an attanger.

To me at least a one man band player that is not a piano player is better off with an arranger (if you are a great piano payer...fine too).

When I had the Kurz...before I got an arranger seems all I ever did is play with the sounds, features etc and didn't play all that much music. It sounded a heck of a lot better in most respects than anyof the top arrangers today. That's what the Kurz was all about...QUALITY SOUND.

But that's only my perspective for what it's worth.

Lee