Adjusting the mic settings you can place it well in other reverbs, but the libraries also sound decent out of the box (without additional reverb) and with other Spitfire libraries, though they don't always mix well with libraries from other manufacturers without some work. I've not found the Spitfire sound overly limiting-and it's the foundation of my libraries now.
I don't know how VSL is handling licensing now, but at the time I looked they also required a dongle.
On EWQL (and the Hollywood series that replaced it) I've heard the dongle is no longer required since iLok can now verify via software, but my understanding is that once you go with the dongle there is no going back on libraries you already purchased. The dongle was one reason I went a different direction than VSL when the time came to upgrade. The library that sits around unused for me is the EWQL Symphonic Library-mostly due to the dumb dongle, which seems to exist mostly to throw up licensing errors. This has a number of advantages but the biggest is the humanize functions.
I'd also recommend that if you're interested you spend a bit more (I know that VSL is a big investment, but not a lot different than other equivalent libraries) to upgrade to Vienna Instrument Pro (this is the sample player engine).
RAM is less of a problem than drive access speed, since the VSL player is exceptionally good at managing memory. I'd recommend (and VSL does as well) that the libraries reside on an external SSD drive. I have heard others run it with no problem with 16GB.
On my iMac with 24 gb RAM, I have played scores with over 80 instruments and have never come close to challenging the RAM. I come back to VSL because I like that neutrality and I'm getting better at manipulating the sound processing to get the sound I want. As I said in an earlier post, this could be ok, if you're looking for a library that always sounds like it was recorded in AIR studios (in the case of some Spitfire libraries, for example), but you may find that sound limiting after a while, and then have to invest more in other libraries to achieve a different sound. When a sample is recorded in a real venue, the atmosphere and early reflections of that venue are recorded and the sample loses it's neutrality. What this means is that with VSL you can take an instrument and place it in any virtual reverb environment and it will respond to that environment the same as a real instrument would. This approach has remained unique as far as I know, with other libraries being recorded in actual venues. VSL was one of the early leaders with orchestral sampling, and their samples were recorded dry in an anechoic chamber. I'd recommend an email to Notion sales to ask them if the presets are complete. I haven't verified by going instrument-by-instrument to compare that there are presets for each instrument in SE, but the list is very complete. It appears that there are presets for the complete SE collection. How much ram does it require to have a whole score load up? Francisbouillon wroteSo everything from the complete catalog including the choir is integrated with all articulations? How does it compare to more modern library in terms of strings legato and latest advancement in symphonic orchestra sampling?