Intuitive interfaces for sample based sound design?

I've really enjoyed playing with Ashlight, Pharlight, etc. when building tension tracks for library music. I've barely scratched the surface, they seem pretty foggin' awesome. Never really hear them talked about, either, underrated lil' beasts.

I feel like I only beat one drum in this subforum but I will say Phase Plant once again, it's a fantastic workflow that works great for samples as well as anything else. Crossfade loops and granular, sample FM, RM, noise and noise modulation, polyFX, and layering both sound sources and behaviors is easy.

I like Harmor and Falcon as well for scrubbing... I feel like I'm talking about maybe a more traditional workflow than the OP and others might be looking for, though. To me, this is good, for now.

I've had plenty of fun with Reaktor, being that it's not a synth but a toolbox, perhaps it's not the best example. Alchemy v1, Absynth, and Omnisphere have all been my creative playgrounds for sample manipulation, each with numerous processes to turn samples into unique sound sources. Even the lowly Cool Edit Pro, now Adobe Audition, was capable of transforming samples into jello. Kaivo is rather innovative in my opinion. I just installed the demo of Crusher X, that's a powerhouse. I kind of see it as there are so many tools, so little time. I like Novum but it doesn't give me the fine control i like. Iris is great, had immense potential but izotope. Had the same feelings about Metasynth as Sophus, have wanted it ~almost~ enough to acquire a MAC and learn another OS but not quite.

Not sure i agree that the technology limited the amount of presets on early virtual synths, i think the mindset way back when was much more that it was expected the user would create their own presets as that had been the case (out of necessity) with hardware.