The trouble is the price you pay in complexity, trying to cover ALL the bases in one go. This is compounded by the fact that each of those separate things has to be setup entirely by the user. I buy an arranger, it's styles and sounds and OS are already nicely integrated, it can gig out of the box, and its' OS is optimized for ease of live use. I buy a WS, its' sounds and arps/loops are already balanced, it's usually open enough to have a sampler and maybe a groovebox loop player too. I buy a stage keyboard (like S90XS or Nord Stage) it has perfectly balanced sounds on board, and an OS designed for live band usage.

I buy a completely open keyboard, I got to do ALL that myself, just to get as good as each of those keyboards. Let alone integrate all three so the arranger can run at the same time as the stage piano while the loop player is being triggered by front panel buttons... My life is complicated enough already!

For each individual task, there already is a better solution than an open keyboard. In the studio, I prefer the convenience of computers, which can be replaced and upgraded a lot easier and more frequently than hardware open keyboards. I don't need to take them out live, hardware live keyboard specialists already do what I need in a live keyboard and keep life simple.

I think the open keyboard's problem is keeping the front end as simple as hardware ones do. My main focus is still making MUSIC, not programming computers! The front ends of the specialist keyboards make doing each task the easiest that it CAN be. The front end of open keyboards makes all them look ridiculously easy. I always wished the MS had concentrated a LOT more on being a great ARRANGER rather than a half-assed arranger with a great VSTi player tacked on. But it's not like it couldn't be that IF Dom knuckled down and concentrated on that part of the keyboard's OS. But I guess it wasn't as sexy as all that Qranger nonsense

I'd MUCH rather have three separate systems than one system that did them all either half-assedly or incredibly complexly. Especially as some of the live arrangers and WS's can BOTH be had for little if anything more than an MS. It's rare you ever need all three (or even two) at the same time for the same job. Separate arrangers, WS's and VSTi setups simply WORK better at the moment.

I am sure, at some future date, the open keyboard WILL achieve total integration and ease of use. But that day, IMO, has not arrived yet...