I never really rated most of the bundled (or paid for) content available for Sonar Platinum as neither Rapture Pro née Dimension Pro really stacked up to the competition even back when they were released. The Studio Instruments, Artist Instruments and Platinum Instruments collections and Cakewalk Sound Centre were at best rudimentary or included severely limited versions of 3rd party software. That said, I've always loved Session Drummer 3, Z3TA+2 Synth, Adaptive Limiter*, LP EQ and LP MB (pity we can't use this in other DAWS) It still strikes me as staggering that new Bandlab users perhaps don't fully realise they are getting the full unrestricted core of an absolutely top drawer DAW for free. I guess the lack of a sampler was always a Sonar weakness (but there are loads of perfectly serviceable freebies out there)
I've always felt that if anything could even be considered essential for making music (modern or otherwise) it might be the software and hardware with which you choose to create it rather than the specific VST instruments that might be bundled with any DAW. Would the included plug ins be a deal breaker if you were choosing a 'paid for' DAW?
In addition, I've never conflated 'beginners' with 'unable to afford plug ins' given that Bandlab is completely free and there are thousands of free plug ins out there that are used and recommended by those at the cutting edge of contemporary music. (whatever that is, me being a grumpy 58 year old who hasn't a clue about such things...)