KK 2.8 and 3rd Party Plugins

It is definitely a Problem in capital letters.

As a musician I have felt pretty hampered - optimism added - with this particular issue and, though technology compatibility issues will not leave anytime soon, as vdd put it, it may be worth NI going above and beyond to provide a solution for this gigantic issue on their end asap. I feel they indeed own this part, and though knowing the progress made and being grateful for it, it feels not sufficient somehow.

To me I am trying again, see if it finally reaches an "acceptable" state of working dynamics, but I am seriously considering migrating away of NI environment fully by selling&transferring my NI software licenses and starting anew (something I already did with all NI hardware I owned). It may sound abrupt, but after years seeing the landscape I am aware of those solutions technology wise nicely and tightly integrated, which provide minimum disruption in the creative process. This to any musician is probably priority number 1. So Apple somehow caused appearances to go away and solid integrated environments to literally triumph over the changes while other not so well coordinated - I am aware also of the financial/corporate changes of NI... - are struggling in plain daylight.

Unfortunately, NI is lagging behind, it is not the flawless smooth consolidation framework it portrayed itself to be, and this is by now very obvious, which given the premium NI demands for its products, and the pretty costly yearly upgrades it "forces" on its users, starts putting NI at a significant competitive disadvantage. And people will talk about this more and more.

Hoping it helps and looking forward to better user experience for anyone else to not go through what many, it seems, have gone through.