It's already been shown that the styles and sounds that COME with the MS are very lackluster and amateurish. So, as is shown by the interest in Yamaha style players and Ketron style players, you HAVE to start out as if it were an empty keyboard.

But, to be honest, the answer to the question is 'NEITHER'...

I don't want to have to give up expandability for an arranger that sounds great OOTB, but I ALSO don't want to give up immediacy and ease of use for something that is expandable. And currently, NO-ONE is offering us that choice. The open arranger makers COULD, right now, but they are too cheap, lazy or ignorant to realize what 99% of the market actually WANT... Sure, we want what they got, but we want what WE got, too. Put the two together, make it affordable, and the world will beat a path to their door.

Take the path they have chosen... it's up to YOU to do ALL the work, if you want to at least sound the equal of a closed arranger, let alone better, it's going to take prodigious amounts of work and skill, and they will remain what they are now... niche products for a niche market (and a subset of what is already a niche market )

The arranger is already relegated to a fraction of sales of WS's. And open arrangers are a tiny fraction of that fraction. Simply because the manufacturers won't take the time and effort that the closed arranger manufacturers do. Look at the sales figures... it's is obvious to all but the deliberately blind and ignorant what the vast majority of arranger players wants. That doesn't mean we don't want the open expandability AS WELL. But only a tiny handful want to give up what's GOOD about a closed arranger to get what's good about an open one...

I want it ALL...