I may be wrong, but I think DI said so in one of the interviews.
I get continuous development is a feature in current units, but I understand the sentiment that having the same effects as last gen on delivery is not ok.
I tried really hard dialing in the reverbs on Helix Native comparing them with other offerings from IK, UA, Soundtoys and Valhalla and I personally find them lacking. I was under the impression it was due to horse power, it needed to run on Helix hardware. But it was before I got an Yamaha Magicstomp. While not sounding particularly realistic, there's something very pleasing about how everything sounds. How it blends nicely with the core sound, even raising the effects volume it doesn't make things murky like Helix's reverb usually do, also the stereo spread is better. So I don't think its really the processing, it's something about the algorithms/filtering that's not IMO dialed in, at least for my taste.
Another example is the Pog2. Why did it sound so good and ultimately just musical? Trying to use pitch blocks in Helix is kind like ok, a bit harsh, I'd like to see at least a high cut on the effects block itself. But why did a simple octave up the Pog2 sounds so much better? If like to see this type of stuff addressed.