No instrument is obsolete unless it stops functioning. And even then you can bang on or throw it off the roof and sample that.

I prefer my hardware samplers still but because I use kurzweils, mostly for the synth engine attached as just playing back audio aint that tuff so for playback if realtime performance is not a critical issue I will use a softsampler. Mostly I use softsamplers these days for quick auditions of sample work I do prior to moving to some hardware format.

No number 1's but at least my name is on the back of funcrusher+