I don't know, I like having sounds from Omnisphere, Massive, Sylenth, VSM, M-Tron Pro, Drumazon, etc. available. Yeah, you can do a lot with the built in stuff but there are some sounds that will take you forever to get right. I recently needed a string synth sound with a fast release, I could have spent a couple days getting it from Z3TA or Dim Pro but it was a lot faster dialing up an ARP string patch in VSM and chopping off the release time.
No way you're ever going to get a great drawbar tonewheel organ sound from the built-ins, no matter how much you tweak them. Kontakt + Vintage Organs takes care of that in seconds.
Simpler is better but it really depends on the sound you want to make.
 
Oh yeah, regarding the one trick pony, the effect you bought for one song... That's the one that's going to put you on the charts, did I mention I'm very popular in Brasil? :) Stoicism is great, but there's nothing wrong with going for it either.

Well, I never meant for it to sound like I had only Sonar plug ins on my system either, so if it came across like that, let me correct it.  I have EZD2, IKM Amplitube 3 and T-Racks, Toneboosters, S-Gear, Valhalla, to name a few.
 
However, if I had not used something in the last year, it didn't get installed on this go round. My goal was to thin down on choices and to use and learn the plugs, that I use most of the time.

No matter how great a particular plugin may be if you don't know how to use it the value is undiscovered. I can understand why one may want a few compressors but a couple dozen seems counter productive to me. So I try to keep my core stuff down in quantity but up in quality.
 
That said I do seem to have a multitude of VSTi some of which do similar things (BFD3 and Battery; Guitar Rig and S-Gear, etc). So possibly moderation is the key...and dedicating some time to learn what I have before bravely going forward with new gear. Omnisphere arrives Friday. 
 
Regards,
 

Minimalist here too. 
I don't even install half the Synth plug ins that come with Sonar anymore. 
I had tried them on last install and had no use for them so figured why bother. 
I tend to only install what I actually use and after 8 years not much has changed for me. 
Probably because I'm not a "Synth" user. I only seem to use tradition instruments you have in a traditional Blues, Folk or Country Rock band. I realize I'm probably a minority group here. 
 "Mr Tramp" is my only 3rd party / 32 bit plug in. But I'm hoping my purchase of Dim Pro 1.5 will have a good Wurly in there. Haven' had time to install yet. 
 
And I find all I need is Sonars Effects Plugs. There way more than I will ever use. Some of the plugs from Wave Lab are added and I downloaded the freebies that came from Focusrite but found them so so.  So next install they are gone too. 

SONAR 8.5.2 and an EQ, a Compressor, a Reverb and a Limiter. A couple of Samplers for keyboards and pianos. I have diagnosed my latest case of GAS and can guess that I'll be buying a used Wurlitzer 200A sooner than later. A couple VST synths, but I have started using some of the new analog synths because they are way more fun to listen too. 
 

Anderton

mixmkr
 
Am I alone in this thinking?

I hope not, I think you make a lot of sense. I have a select repertoire of proven plug-ins and leave it at that. I also think limiting the number of plug-ins helps stability.
 
True story: When Sound on Sound magazine did one of their "Mix Rescue" features, the person who did the recording went and got tea for the SOS crew. They started the way they usually do, by bypassing the plug-ins to get a sense of the tracks themselves. When the host returned to the studio, he was taken aback. "What did you do? It sounds great!"
 
SOS says this has happened more than once...
 
Great topic, by the way.

This happens to me all the time. I'll be going around in circles in a mix trying to get tracks to sit together nice, ending up with these ridiculous chains (multiple compressors/EQ's on each track, as well as tape emulators, modulation, stereo narrowing/widening, distortion, amp/cab sims, multiple layers of reverb) and eventually I end up thinking nothing is going to work. So I turn everything off and hit play....and it sounds great with everything sitting in it's own space and working together.

I don't mind having a lot of plugins though and I never "spring clean." There are loads that I never use but I keep them just in case - you never know when they're going to come in useful. Like recently I was having trouble with an (intentionally) lo-fi drum track that needed a bit of sparkle, and I'd tried all my usual avenues without success. Finally I ended up loading Native Instruments Driver plugin, which was a freebie I'd never used. It worked perfectly.

With synths I think a lot of people forget how much processing they can do "on board" without even loading a plugin. If a synth has onboard EQ, compression, chorus etc then I'll try and do as much with those as possible before using track effects. You just have to remember to save the preset in case anything goes wrong.

Some VSTi's have such good effects that you rarely need to load a plugin. For instance I often have 5 or 6 drum engines running in Geist without using a single external effect or sending the drums to their own tracks - Geist's effects are so good I can do absolutely everything in there and just have each engine output to it's own bare stereo track. Heck I even arrange all the drums in there, no need for any MIDI.

I have a few 3rd part VSTs and VSTis.

bapu
I have a few 3rd part VSTs and VSTis.

I'm thinking where people have D drives for audio, E for samples.... you've got F-M for VST(i) .dll files.
I did keep my crazy collection of impulse responses though.  Those seem safe in their own small folder.

I get more excitement taking away plugins I don't need than buying them nowadays.
Simpler the better.

Mostly Pro Channel,  Nomad Factory and Cake synths here. Occasionally and depending on the song I'll use VOS plugs but that's about it. I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to clutter up the new PC with a gazillion plugins I never used and I'm sticking to it.