I was thinking about this ... from my own experience ...
I would say nearly 99.9% of the time, my biggest disappointments are plugins NOT samples. The latest compressor ... or channel strip ... or reverb ...
And to be honest, I hardly ever hear the difference it makes. Especially all the compression, channel strip, saturation, etc. People swear they hear the difference that putting a SSL or Neve channel strip makes, and to be honest ... I struggle hearing it.
I would bet if someone mixed the same song on Logic or Pro Tools stock plugins ... versus the most expensive ones on the market ... I would bet 9/10 people would not be able to hear the difference.
Reverb or Delay? Maybe 7/10 people would never hear the difference.
Bad samples like orchestra? Maybe 3/10 would not hear it.
I just am almost always disappointed by any plugin.
Most samples I enjoy in some form. The Get Good Drums was my biggest disappointment of late, but I'm sure it is user error. Areia strings was disappointing too, but again it is probably me.
To me, I always end up back with Berlin Strings, and possibly Spitfire Chamber. I don't know why I insist on the "holy grail" where I buy every string package out there. I should learn from my plugin disappointment.
I think that is another reason I struggled with templates. The template felt like a temptation to just buy more stuff. But now, I'm thinking of building a template like I'm actually paying musicians. So, I can't have 50 different string libraries. I have ONE. And if there are others I have, then they have to prove they are better to replace them.
Use the same musicians (i.e. samples) until I find a better one to replace them with. But until then do NOT replace them. Instead use them ... and get music out.
There is something magical about putting limitations. So if I buy 100 compressors, then fine. But in an actual studio I'd probably only have access to 2-3 of them. Use my spare time to test out the other 98 (like my own personal Guitar Center), BUT ... it never touches the studio unless I commit to it. AND I replace.
So much of my time wasted. Kind of like how email at work can make you feel like you are "doing" work, but you really aren't.
Less is more ...