I'm not sure I agree. I think the biggest obstacles against "home recordists" (guitarists with DAW software) using real drums are- (#1) Lack of playing ability coupled with unwillingness to invest the time and money into it. Drums are pretty impractical to just get into out of the blue.. because you're investing hundreds of dollars before you can even get a usable sound out of them, and at least a thousand playing hours before muscle memory kicks in and what you're playing sounds passable. Plus the noise, the space requirements......
Well...I think we're both saying the same thing.
I said that many home-rec guys don't have the decent drum kit or the space...etc.
AFA learning to playing well....while that may be desirable, and some people want to go that route....I don't see that it's a problem if you don't want to also learn to play drums.
I've got a huge drum kit in my studio with an assortment of toms and cymbals and 6-7 snares to pick from...but I don't play it, I have a drummer who comes over to play it.
So not knowing how to play a kit is IMO less of an impediment than not having the kit or the space...etc.
I think if you have the kit and the space and the mics and you know how to record a kit...it's not that hard to entice a drummer to just show up and play it for you...as opposed to making him drag his kit over and setting it up, etc.
That said...not knowing how to play (though I actually have played a little back in the day) doesn't mean you can't understand what makes a good drum groove.
I always know what kind of beat I want, where fills need to go and how involved they need to be...the accents and the crashes...etc....so when I do program drums using Superior Drummer rather then record my drummer buddy...I can work very convincing drum grooves. I've played some grooves back for my drummer...and the first time he heard them, he got that puzzled look on his face because he thought I brought someone else in to play drums for me.
I'm not saying I can program better than a better drummer can play...but I certainly can program grooves that sound as real as any drummer....plus, I'm doing Rock/Pop/Blues shit, which doesn't require Neil Pert style grooves. It's mostly about the Kick/Snare/Hat...with some tasty fills and accents to top it off. Variety and randomness in the beats/accents is one of the main ingredients to making it "real" sounding.
Some people will obsess for hours over which Snare sample to use...then they program some stupid rat-tat-tat-tat with no playing feel, and some impossible Hat or Tom playing on top of the Snare. So no matter how great the Snare sample...the groove still sounds unreal.
I love recording the studio kit with a drummer playing...and if he grasps the vibe of the song, his playing will have that added spontaneous emotion that is harder to program with samples...but there's also a lot of good points to being able to work out a groove at my leisure, and I can experiment and try out different stuff ...which isn't always possible with a drummer, since there is always a time constraint. Also...I have the song in my head...the drummer doesn't, he's only following my scratch track and my instructions.
Now...if you're in a band and/or recording a band...well then that's a different story. Then everyone is going to put in the time and effort (hopefully), and everyone will be familiar with the song and they will most likely already have worked out what they want to do and how it should sound, etc....so that makes things a bit easier.
Anyway....I use both as needed. I love recording the studio kit live and getting that instant gratification, and I also enjoy working out a groove in Superior Drummer and experimenting with a variety of samples and beats.