Right then, so this has become the beat up on iZotope thread ?
 . . . removing vocal breath sounds, piano pedal thumps, extraneous noises in live recordings, sounds like what iZotope has been up to lately. Pristine pop music, maybe . . . but I remember the days of listening to orchestral vinyl recordings and some dude is coughing through the quiet sections and ruining the vibe, that's really where this kind of thing should be applied, restoring and repairing great historical performances . . . but the marketing department is possibly disconnected with that, and really needs to sell the new features.
 

I have to overdub gasps for air and lung wheezes to my to my SampleModelling brass tracks, to get that 'old fella that still going, Jazz sound. And the sound of putting a whisky glass on a table between verses.
 
Sampling just isnt quite there yet in my opinion.

Adding the noises that you would normally get when making
a recording, as was stated, adds to the realism, AND it tests
your Engineering abilities, as, if you actually DID do the tracking,
then those noises would actually be there and you WOULD have to remove
them...

I am glad that things like pedal noises are recorded as separate sample layers, because that lets me decide whether or not I want to hear them.
 
How many here have actually recorded a real piano? It's difficult! There will be volume and tonal variances across the keyboard, and you always end up with resonances and extraneous noises to mitigate. Not to mention the instrument is probably partially out of tune because you bumped it since its last tuning.
 
Give me a good sampled piano any day!

How about Bonham's squeaky bass drum pedal in those old Zep recordings? 
 
http://johnbonham.co.uk/drumsetup/ludwig-speed-king-bass-drum-pedal.html