Yeah, no sympathy for people who have never blown speakers!
On Hanz Zimmer's interview on Access's website he says exactly the same: that he turned to the Mini Moog for extreme bass.
I know for a fact that most EDM producers use digital synths for Bass. It's mainly got to do with precision: since there's usually the option to lock the phase on the oscillators. Either that, or use other sources, such as Analogue, but sampled. And it's no easy task: you have to record many notes for the same note, and choose the best sounding one (for all of them)...
That's mainly what's happened here:
http://www.spectrasonics.net/products/trilian.php
This product is done like that: a lot of good sources, sampled carefully and ready to go. (I think it doesn't include the growl bass shit, however
)
But I somehow miss the all over the place, more organic and unprecise synth bass. I think the BPM has gone way up, nowadays, because you can trully get more precision with digital sequencers and synths, and sampling... I mean, you couldn't possibly expect an analogue synth to cope with 160bpm KBBB bass, that's why you'd see much more glide taking place on the 90's rave scene then nowadays... The TB303 era, so to speak... Most modern synths still sell on the basis of recreating that kind of filter for squelchy delights, and analogue warmth, and distortion still sells to... So Bass is probably the area where it shows people want the best of both worlds, nowadays...