I’m pretty sure that anyone used to a different system can make an argument for their preferred mode being logical too!

The bottom line is, pick any one system, you can find strengths and flaws, but over the years of using one system, you play to its strengths and play around its weaknesses until they become so ingrained you may not even realize you are playing around a weakness.

That’s kind of the nature of the beast… every chord, every note combination, is open to interpretation. CEGA might be C6. It might be Am7/C. CGD might be Copen2. It might be Gsus4/C. There really is no way that an arranger can tell without additional input (a bass pedal input, or a two handed chord with the root doubled, etc.). Chords are contextual, and that’s outside modern arrangers’ capabilities so far.

So we live with the system. And have to accept when it all goes wrong!

Technology has always pushed forward regardless. There are many typists that still prefer a mechanical typewriter, their careers were built around the rhythm of accounting for the travel of the letter as it struck the paper. But they adapted, or found a different career… Usually that adaptation creates its own strengths.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but holds aren’t linked to Performances, are they? That’s kind of the whole point of holds. So I’m still a little unsure if they are your answer as there’s no way to defeat them on the fly. You’re still trying to find a system that allows you to go old school when simply using the Performance system to do everything in one go is how the arranger is designed.

Even selecting styles is a massive task on the fly with many panel button presses to find a style not on the first couple of pages of the ROM categories, or a fair bit of scrolling if you keep User Styles in one folder so they can have custom OTS’s. Ditto for Tones unless you are content with the ROM sound with its ROM MFX. I wish Favorites had allowed editing, but no luck!

We are victims of our own desires! We all wanted more sounds, more styles, more effects, more more more! Now we are stuck trying to wade through all those choices on the fly and it seems that it just got too hard to do well without it detracting from the art of playing. 😎🎹