Native Instruments with Audition?

The reason is that people make assumptions that aren't justified. So fundamentally, a lack of research. I would respectfully disagree that it's a 'big' part missing - it's only as big as you wish it to be. For me it's no loss at all because I primarily use Audition for editing live music, and MIDI doesn't come into it.

You have to look at where Audition's real strengths lie. A lot of users of other music production systems (like ProTools, for instance) use Audition as a mastering tool, although they are often reluctant to admit it. Also, of course, it has links directly into Premiere, so it can be used for audio sweetening of video sound. In that context, it's important to recognise that this is why Adobe purchased Syntrillium in the first place - they wanted audio expertise, not music production. At its heart, Adobe has been very much a visual-based company and in many ways it's amazing that Audition still remains a standalone product, quite frankly. What they develop depends upon what their big-ticket users want, and if the don't want MIDI, then all the asking in the world from a few thousand individuals is going to get nowhere.

And it really is like this. There are - well there certainly were - quite a few of the developers who would happily have another go at MIDI, but their path is effectively blocked by the metrics they get in from the big (think of a number with six '0's on the end of it) users. These are the ones that support the salary bills...