Nobody, at the height of the home organ reign, EVER thought they would one day go away. Anyone that thinks that arrangers are 'future-proof' would be well advised to consider this.

No-one can predict what will happen down the pike, but one thing is for certain. If a keyboard doesn't help you make the kind of music YOU want to play, you don't buy it. And arrangers in their current form do VERY little for someone that likes modern music... and are a VERY poor substitute for a WS with arp and loop capabilities, for someone that performs arp and loop based music (which is what a majority of modern music IS).

Either the arranger morphs, or WS's take over. None of us are going to live forever! They still MAKE home organs... But they are out of reach price-wise for most, not because of how intrinsically expensive they are, but the tiny size of the market rules out economy of scale. Unless we want the arranger to go down this path (and the ever spiraling upwards prices for TOTL arrangers, compared to TOTL WS's, that we have been seeing is an indicator it is already happening) the arranger MUST start to incorporate loops and arps, and deliver content that a 20 year old wouldn't feel embarrassed playing to his friends.