This is NOT a rant about current implementation, just curious - why Steinberg decided to develop Sampler Track (“ST”) instead of a Sampler VST, that would live on a normal instrument track and - like Padshop, Retrologue or Groove Agent - could be used in other DAWs? I fail to see what ST can do that a sampler plugin using MIDI expressions / MPE and automation wouldn’t be able to?
There must be something that I’m missing.
There are a number of free Sampler VSTs. Probably could use those:
Because they wanted to make Cubase look like Ableton Live. Why? Because people were asking for it for a very long time.
This + docked windows requests.
Tighter integration, perhaps? You have the context menu entries that allow you to have any audio file or event be made a sample.
Not sure if that is possible if the sampler was a regular plugin.
That’s my guess too ! 
@ antic604
Besides:
Halion 7 is a VSTsampler, isn’t it? and
Groove Agent 6 is a VSTDrum sampler, imo.
So what’s missing really?
And technically you can use Groove Agent SE as a full fledged sampler too, if you use it like an MPC60/3000/2000 (which only had Drum kit programs aside from MIDI tracks).
Just pick the root note, and map your sample across all the pads..
Since Sampler Tracks are a different kind of track despite being a VST Instrument, they don’t count towards your max instrument track count. That means you could have 48 instruments tracks in Elements: 24 regular and 24 sampler.
There’s HALion, for this. 
Can’t load samples into HALion SE though.
It’s not HALion, though, it it? It’s HALion Sonic!
Halion costs additional money. Sampler Track is incuded in Cubase.
Worth every penny.
Halion - yes. Your comment - probably not.
Cheeky!
Halion and GA full versions are VSTsamplers. None is included in Cubase. You need a separate licence for both, and they cost a lot of money, yes!
So the sampler track, included in Cubase licence, is a very good alternativ!
I absolutely agree.
And, unless you’ve actually bought HALion, you’ll never know how awesome it is.
Just to clarify, Halion is a very complex instrument including being a sampler but so much more.. expensive but worth it.
Halion sonic (free) has a very good subtractive synth built in but no you can’t load samples and is not a sampler.
Both Groove agents including the free SE are full samplers and though they use pads and not a keyboard on the GUI you can map a single or multiple samples across a keyboard range.
It’s clearly designed for drums / percussion but can be used for anything. You can easily make a string, bass or piano instrument for example.
Groove agent SE is quite a powerful sampler if you put the work in.
The sample track is quite a simple sampler, IMO designed for fast editing and being creative with single samples in a quick and easy way.
Considering you already have the Groove agent SE option I believe the sample track is a good alternative and nicely different.
Thanks @all for your thoughts - yes, “tighter integration” and “users wanted sampler in lower zone, like Ableton” make the most sense to me as explanations.
In practice though, feels like they’ve achieved the opposite effect - by deciding to use Sampler Track you’re forcing yourself into specific track & device, so if you’d want to swap it out to a different sampler (e.g. Halion), then it’s not as easy as replacing a plugin. Also since the number of lower zone parameters increased since Sampler Track was first released, it starts to get pretty crowded and convoluted, which could be avoided by using a bigger GUI of a regular VST. Lastly, as I said, if it was a plugin it would be available to use in other DAWs, which I often to with Padshop and Retrologue.
Anyway, just a curious thought on my part and considering the number of answers I can see others are also “bored” and twiddling their thumbs waiting for 16 - beta, or not - to drop 
Where Halion and Groove Agent are concerned, Sampler Track does indeed have an option to send its “patch” to either one when you need to swap it out and go further.
Oh, it does? I wasn’t aware - thanks! 