So i guess one way to work around this the VST3- way, would be to build midi processing into a plugin which also sub-hosts another VST3 instrument plugin from inside my plugin. That way I can do any kind of midi processing I want and send it directly to the instrument rather then trying to send out midi back to the DAW to do it.
Anyone know if there is any good hosting example code out there, particularly for hosting an instrument plugin from within another instrument plugin?