I tend to echo your feelings, Mark.

As a long time Yamaha employee, I had extensive time on the DX-7 after it came out in 1983, and did a lot of work with it, both demoing and playing it in a band.

Even the most synth-experienced of us had quite a time coming to grips with the programming, and most of us ended up being "sound editors" rather than "sound creators". Sound creators, like Bo Tomlyn, from the USA, made a nice living selling preloaded cartridges with fresh and inventive sounds for the more performance orientated DX-7 users.

I lean towards arrangers, in my case, a Tyros4, because, even though the sound editing is not quite as extensive, it still allows enough to "tweak" a sound into submission, or, more expression, depending on my needs.

I'm from the "old school", having cut my teeth on Yamaha CP-70M, Hammond B-3, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer EP-200, and Polymoog and Jupiter 8 analog synthesizers. I don't want, or need extensive editing, because, like you, I am more of a player than a programmer.

However, the Kronos is quite a beautifully sounding instrument, although Nedim's sound editing demonstration was rather too simplistic to be of any benefit, at least to me.

Most arranger keyboards, from all brands, have enough sound editing for 99% of a "player's" needs, in my opinion.

Ian