I don't think all that electronic "magic" will go away anytime. It's more or less a prerequisite to create some kinds of sounds, which you just can't "manufacture".
It's not only about pure electronic music.
Almost all modern productions in all kinds of genres are depended on the usage of computers (and other machines). All that tech makes modern sounding peaces possible in the first place.
Even seemingly "maximal analog" music (like for example classic orchestra) sounds on a record the way it sounds because there was a lot of digital processing to remove all kinds of imperfections form the recorded raw audio, and of course a lot of of other post-processing.
Also I think it's clear what the majority prefers: People are asking actually for better produced pieces, otherwise the market wouldn't have moved that way.
Back in the day you would need to record and produce in one of that big, very expensive, well know studios somewhere around the world if you wanted to land a hit. The tech in those studios is worth millions to this day. Nobody would have invested in such a thing if people wouldn't have liked the results coming out there. (Today it's thankfully much cheaper to have a good recording; actually some small HW setup and a powerful PC with SW for only a few thousand bucks is more or less enough to sound absolutely professional, if you only know what you're doing of course).
On the other hand your actually right in some sense:
In a lot of genres "absolute perfection" isn't a goal. We use computers to remove "random (human / physical) imperfection" but add in on the other side some "humanization" into the sounds by digital means.
I think there is at the moment even a kind of trend to add more realistic, powerful, and interesting "humanization" possibilities to digital instruments. ("Humanization" or "randomization" knobs aren't anything new, but those functions get extended lately I think; for example you can use now AI instead of simply adding some randomness to some parameters).
So yes, we want to keep "natural" sounds to some degree. But by now we're using computers to artificially make the things that we're producing digitally sound more "natural". :-)
I think the core point here is control. To have something sound really great you need to be able to control every aspect of the sound, even the most tiny details. "Imperfections" are OK, or even actually desired, but only as long as they're added deliberately and remain controllable.
B), C)
I don't think all that electronic "magic" will go away anytime. It's more or less a prerequisite to create some kinds of sounds, which you just can't "manufacture".
It's not only about pure electronic music.
Almost all modern productions in all kinds of genres are depended on the usage of computers (and other machines). All that tech makes modern sounding peaces possible in the first place.
Even seemingly "maximal analog" music (like for example classic orchestra) sounds on a record the way it sounds because there was a lot of digital processing to remove all kinds of imperfections form the recorded raw audio, and of course a lot of of other post-processing.
Also I think it's clear what the majority prefers: People are asking actually for better produced pieces, otherwise the market wouldn't have moved that way.
Back in the day you would need to record and produce in one of that big, very expensive, well know studios somewhere around the world if you wanted to land a hit. The tech in those studios is worth millions to this day. Nobody would have invested in such a thing if people wouldn't have liked the results coming out there. (Today it's thankfully much cheaper to have a good recording; actually some small HW setup and a powerful PC with SW for only a few thousand bucks is more or less enough to sound absolutely professional, if you only know what you're doing of course).
On the other hand your actually right in some sense:
In a lot of genres "absolute perfection" isn't a goal. We use computers to remove "random (human / physical) imperfection" but add in on the other side some "humanization" into the sounds by digital means.
I think there is at the moment even a kind of trend to add more realistic, powerful, and interesting "humanization" possibilities to digital instruments. ("Humanization" or "randomization" knobs aren't anything new, but those functions get extended lately I think; for example you can use now AI instead of simply adding some randomness to some parameters).
So yes, we want to keep "natural" sounds to some degree. But by now we're using computers to artificially make the things that we're producing digitally sound more "natural". :-)
I think the core point here is control. To have something sound really great you need to be able to control every aspect of the sound, even the most tiny details. "Imperfections" are OK, or even actually desired, but only as long as they're added deliberately and remain controllable.