macbabbi,
your friend told you bull shi*, the VA76 plays varyphrace in the arrangment and now after the release of VA-7 version 2 software the VA-7 KB does it too. Va-7 and VA76 are way better that any other arranger KB and yourself sayd in your message that all the functions are there, they are just not available on the front panel like it was in the G-1000. And plus you should ear the new v sounds, no other arranger KB gaves you the same quality for the same price range. Your friends didn't have the time and maybe also the capability to program the VA-76. VA7 and VA76 are a step in the future of arranger KB.
Read more in this forum about it and go try one yoursef before writing such a statement.
Your friend probably is one of those I wanna make music but I don't understand anything about programming, and programming is the only way to make original music out of a keyboard that will produce the same sound for any song composed by anyone who owns the same KB in the world. Don't listen to your friend and also don't listen to me either, if you are interested to the KB go try one yourself and read as much as you can and " pay attention" to what you read, you may be surprised!

Maximo