If you have a chance to jump on the Infinite thread and give more detailed feedback about this "off" feeling on particular examples, I bet that would be useful. Either fans of the library can gradually learn from that feedback how to program Infinite better, or Aaron himself can take some of that feedback to see how to improve future versions.
Infinite series has thrown me into philosophical spiral, thinking about the tradeoffs between "expressiveness/control of a library" versus the "quality of the room tone". Infinite series has the potential (and gets close already) to have the best of both, by virtue of the specialized per-instrument IRs on top of a modeled approach.
But what really has been on my mind is something more vague and hard to describe. These two different camps of virtual instruments do serve different sub-genres in their own ways. Sometimes room tone and reverberation is everything. But for a more traditional orchestral tone, I think sometimes we are conflating "room tone" with "realism" and "musicality" too much. Real recordings don't always have the best room tone or spatial positioning of instruments either. But if the room tone is good enough, I think maybe it matters a LOT more that the instruments can be programmed to sound expressive, natural, and nuanced.
I don't want to be the negative vibe guy, I wouldn't go on that thread just to criticize...
A lot of people are enjoing it...
Sometimes your ear just tells you stuff that is difficult to put in words.
If I need to quickly summarize rationally just to answer your really interesting thought process regarding the room sound...
Many many recording studios around the world are sadly closing in the last 5-10 years.
One of the last reasons for some studios to keep existing and get booking is their special rooms and how instruments shine when recorded in those rooms.
For me it is a similar thing with sample libraries: I am paying for the musicians, producers, scripters, programmers, mics, engineers, but I am also paying, maybe mainly, for the rooms. Most libs differentiate in sound in such a big way because of the room they are recorded in.
I have been a recording engineer for many years and recorded enough acoustic instruments to recognize that, in dire case of need, you can get a close-decent-usable sound (for "orchestral sounding" results, in other genres it is less important) from most instruments recorded in smaller rooms and/or close miking, with the right amount of processing (a lot), virtual spatialization, etc (and possibly you still need some samples mixed under, AND after all this it's still not going to sound as good as the instrument recorded in a great room, where you just need to push the faders up to smile).
But some brass instrument's sound IS the room sound, especially in an orchestral leaning situation. They are kind of initimately connected and it is difficult to separate the two, one is the extension, the projection of the other. And while artificial reverb, IR or whatever type, helps, it probably doesn't feel totally (to me!!) like part of the instrument.
Maybe that is why my ears are picking up something "off".
Again this is MY taste, and I'm sure it can work out fantastically for others.
And I might be tragically wrong, and as you are saying, the trade-off (if there is one) with insane playability (I haven't demoed it yet, only heard demos) is completely worth it .....