The key word for Londoner is patience. You'll find ways to workaround the supposed shortcomings you mentioned. Will VSL replace live players? Not now. But whose expecting that?
Two points Londoner makes that I agree with. VSL does use a lot of memory, and the newcomer sometimes suffers because he paid a lot of money for his VSL instruments only to find his computer doesn't support them very well. And, yes, the manuals are sometimes unclear and perhaps too abbreviated for newcomers. Once again--patience. One discovers a lot of great things about VSL over time.
Perhaps a tutorial that discusses in detail the memory requirements of VSL would be useful. Granted, optimization is well explained, but how about a video aimed at newcomers that discusses VSL memory issues? It might be helpful for those, like me, who bulldozed along with CPU overloads, rather than get a new computer. Looking back, I should have thrown in the towel long before I did. A video might have helped me see the error of my ways.
Good luck, Londoner. Give VSL more time, and all best. Tom M.