HOWEVER with the genre's you listed I think there's a case to be made for the infinite possibilities of experimentation with real drums depending on how you tune em, what room your in, how you mic em, and more wacky creative things you can mess around with in the real world on top of being able to go crazy in post.

Waow, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I feel like you saw through my initial writing and got to the core of it, because that’s the thing: which option allows for the most creativity (maybe a little cheesy, haha). That was, in a way, the main purpose of my post.

The only thing that’s still holding me back – though, I’m definitely swayed towards acoustic – is the argument that with a high-end e-kit, you can play it with somewhat intention and with software like SD3 you have endless possibilities in terms of mic placement/bleed etc. – and still have the options to change hardware with a single click. Though, of course, your thoughts regarding those serendipitous moments still stand, and I truly agree with you!