IK is cool in my book. Purchased with hard dollars most of what they make, and a good investment.
 
Got a solid warez crack for everything I have purchased so don't have to worry about online activation in case my system crashes and have to beg third degree to get another install. Freedom for the end point user.
 
To me, it's all in the utilization of the tool. IK offers an incredible panorama of sounds with their various synths. Amplitube 3 is almost 50% as good as HeadCase, and the closest contender outside of Guitar Rig or Scuffham S-Gear.
 
Layering, panning ability of the IK synth layout is critical and produces professional quality sounds, picking up the dismal shortfall that has crashed on deaf ears with the bakers in any version of Sonar in spite of years pleading. Gave this one up as a voice crying in the wilderness and went to Reaper for a far far better option. Breath of fresh air.
 
Safety in numbers as far as stacking IK samples to get a cinematic output. Bit of eq and can give East West a run.
 
Dim light bulb here in the scripting functions of Kontakt, but IK can keep up if you just got to make the sound without anything too time dependent. The IK samples are older, 32 bit, etc,etc but do the job very well if the inspiration to create is there.
 
ST3 better be cheap even if I see it in my lifetime. Otherwise, ver 2 and all the other synths are way cool. Completely valid in the here and now.
 
John