Guitar players know this as well. A lot of pedals and DAW (digital audio workstation) plugins electronically mimic old analog hardware. Everyone claims the software version is crap, not realizing just how much of their favourite music is using it.

I saw an interview with Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) and right behind him was a rack with a Pod Pro amp simulator. I recognized it because I have one, and indeed, you can easily dial in his tone and typical amp sounds. But I'm left wondering how many Sabbath fans noticed that he's using digital modeling these days, or if they can even tell when he started doing that.

People don't like change. It takes a lot of marketing hype to create motion for change to happen. And most people won't even notice it happen. Just like with Sabbath albums.