As a bass player owning the SVX 1 collection and a few other chosen models, I applaud the features in AT5 but there's something that started with AT4 that I still fail to fully understand:
If you are choosing the Collection or CS path - and you're likely to do so for bass gear - you are left without some embedded/core AT features. AT4 started having some and now AT5 brings some others, locked behind a pay wall. And said features cannot be unlocked as gear.
Given that the gear we'd be using is the one we have already chosen, how many people would be willing to spend for a non-CS ATx (x as for version) on top of their collections?
BTW, for the good stuff:
the introduction of the Brit 800 head for everyone is very welcome, and so is the option to place racks/pedals wherever in the chain for everyone, which was previously locked in AT4 (see?)
The Tiny Terror giveaway was a great surprise and it really gives some wonderful tones pairing it with free guitar cabs. I use it with my Bass VI for guitar oriented rigs and tones and the sounds I get are amazing - to my ears the break-up qualities and dynamics are very three-dimensional for something happening completely digitally.
Even with all its limitations, the bare, vanilla AT CS is nowadays a great free tool worth good tones.