Ooooo, yet another software vs hardware thread!
Both have their cons and pros, both are here to stay. What is better hardware synths or software synths? Well, I use Absynth, Reason, Attack!, rarely Pentagon, Kontakt (ok, that's a sampler), Kurzweil K2600 and just picked up
a Juno-106. They all have their con's and pros, they all sound different, and they're all useful. I also use guitar stompboxes and Antares Tube for distortion. Does
Antares Tube really duplicate the tube sound... hell no! Does it have it's own distinctive sound and is it useful? Hell yes!
My take on all this is, these are tools, and you use the right tool for the right job. It shouldn't matter whether it's hardware or software.
As for reverbs and delays being digital and thus being prime candidate for turning all "soft" is debatable. Good reverbs are quite processor intensive, and even today's processors have a hard time keeping up. Plus, different manufacturers' reverbs sound different whether hardware or software, and it depends on what sound you're after. A lot of time I find myself turning to the KDFX reverbs and other fx in the Kurzweil just because I like the sound and the complete MIDI control I have over them.
I will not even speculate what will happen in the next 50 years.