As a BARP 2600 owner (standard, not grey or blue) I couldn't recommend it more. If nothing else its max €400 for one of the most incredibly routable FX modules of all time with a very serviceable digital spring-reverb and Ring Modulator in the mix. Pair with a Strymon Night Sky or Big Sky and you've an enviable ambient/soundscape setup.

In the case of ODDYSEi, I am not sure whether the included 6-controls sequencer [i think that’s called P-lock] and/or the desunion on 8 « channels » [not sure of the wording] also exist somehow as hardware devices for the real ARP Oddysey

Definitely agree too. Budget is definitely not the same.

And something like VCVRack is heaven to learn, experiment and understand what one can do with synthesis, step by step.

Totally agree, and it's an intermediary step, but it's still not the same.

I mean, it's terrific to have an affordable replica, especially for discovery, I'm not debating the price-point advantage (for both acquisition and maintenance), but this is not an on-par replacement.

In an analog (less so in digital, but still somehow) synth, the controls are the instrument itself: they are in a specific place, react in a specific way, and physically part of the device that outputs the sound, and they stay there: you cannot move one without the other. The instrument has its own character. It's still more abstract than a classical instrument like the violin or the piano where the physical action alone is done and felt in real time, of course. It's significantly more incarnated than software + generic (in a good way) controllers.

The good side of this is that after having software replicas or original synthetisers, there's room to build new exciting embodiments/physical instruments.