vagfilm I have the impression that the only feature in which Pianoteq excels is in the pedalling and how unforgiving you can set the pedal (ie, some VSTs are very forgiving and don't mud the notes, even if you overpedal).
MIDI CC64 messages are about sustaining samples. Pedaling on acoustic pianos is an entirely different beast you cannot learn to master on a digital piano.
The reason why pedaling instructions are so unspecific and most times even left out for the skilled pianist to make up their own pedaling is because good pedaling is very dependent on the actual instrument and the environment it is in.
All that is already baked into samples (including sustain samples), so there is nothing left to do anymore other than sustaining them. Add simple artificial effects (or be completely dependent on them like modeling software) and your done. Simple effects don't reflect acoustic reality, because they need to be implemented on an underpowered general purpose consumer computing device in real time, not on a weather simulation supercomputer.
Hardware manufacturers at least try to recreate some parts of that acoustic instrument and environment to a certain point (while looking at the constraints of mass-market manufacturing), so you can actually avoid having to compute everything.
But blasting samples through monitors or even headphones simply doesn't get you there. You're just replaying someone else's recording (or an approximation of one) and that's the reason why the produced result only approximates the input of the MIDI controller.
vagfilm you idea that VSTs are only for recording is simply absurd
VST sample libraries are just recordings (or a more or less close approximate to one when modeled), so the resulting arrangements in a DAW sound similar to a real recording (and become obviously fake, if you start repeating single notes). That allows music producers to arrange simple harmonic and melodic ideas on their computer without hiring a professional pianist and recording studio to execute them in production-quality.
That idea is actually from the video posted by the OP Del Vento and not my own invention.
