Basically, I agree with this. It is a great toolbox of stuff. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I believe the Komplete (particularly Kontakt, Guitar Rig, and Reaktor) will continue to be popular and well supported for a while.
Yes. Think of the Kontakt Player (the free version) like HALion Sonic SE. It will play the library but the editing capabilities are very limited or non-existent. The paid Kontakt is like HALion in that you can fully edit the instrument. They LOOK the same in the GUI but one allows more editing of the instruments.
HTH
J.L.