Hey friends, I can also shed some light on this one since I've been a softsynth user since the start, and then bought my TI at the start of last year.
I also own, Massive, Zebra2 and Sylenth1.
I truly think that each have their place. I absolutely adore these 3 softsynths, particularly Massive and Sylenth1 at the moment. They are truly amazing bits of kit. Their oscillators do indeed sound pristine compared to the Virus TI, however, they simply can't sound quite as gritty as the Virus. The Virus TI has a completely different tone to any of my VSTis, it sounds a bit more human, a lot more imperfect, which I just love for certain tasks.
Also, the TI filters are just incredible and the effects have a different character to most.
I have tried time and time again to replicate some of the TI sounds with software synths and can't come even close, and vise versa. Take the TI's "boingy" preset for example, really cool sound that is incredibly hard to replicate on anything other than a Virus. On the other hand, the TI can not do the insane, crazy sounds you can do in Massive for example.
Do you prefer Strawberries or Grapes? Both taste good, just depends on what you are the mood for. There is no better or worse between the Virus and native VSTis for me, they both rock and they both have their place, just like PCs and Macs.
