I hear ya, and totally agree that porting anything from a protected vstpreset (the stuff included with the Sonic Soundset) could be nightmarish if the target machine doesn’t have H5 set up in a very similar way. The second machine user will need H5 installed, and may even have to go through and manually locate/register layers or samples (assuming they have them installed). I’d like to see a way to address that in an easier and more intuitive way. It’d certainly be a major plus for people designing H5 sound sets as an end product in and of itself. It is kind of strange to me that you can’t bundle complete Sonic layers in a vstsoundset (at least the messages H5 throws at you when trying makes it seem this way)…when no one can even open the containers and use the stuff without an H5 installation/license in the first place! After all…SE or Sonic doesn’t allow bringing any of this user produced content in…so, it’s pretty much useless without a valid H5 key anyway…so why not let H5 users swap their Sonic based content with ease?
That’s where H5 could use a ‘dev pack’, which includes some sort of free player platform for distribution, and a way to license stuff for SE and Sonic owners would be nice as well.
I think maybe the general idea here is…don’t try to export projects. Instead use the CuBase/Nuendo ‘live connect’ system. I’ve never used it, so I don’t know good or bad that element is…but if that technology is as good as the hype, we no longer really need to export projects as much. Just call the client and have them dial right in to a live session and collaborate over it. As for protecting the entire production environment…entire system backups take only a click or two and backup media is cheaper than labor these days. Just back-up the entire system…OS and all, do a sysprep on that drive, and carry that and your USB key with you to the studio (Might require an enterprise class OS, or at least a non OEM license that doesn’t lock itself to specific cpu/motherboard).
Keep in mind I’m looking at it from the perspective of a CuBase/Nuendo user. I find it pretty easy to trim and move presets and user-samples from a project folder to a permanent library location if it’s the sort of patch I want to use in many projects. I don’t worry too much about vstsoundsets unless I’m trying to package something up to archive or port to another system where I know H5 also lives (really rare for me…in my area the majority of musicians I collaborate with use Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore, and occasionally Pro Tools, or Sonic with whatever stock sounds they came with). As for getting new samples…the integration into the DAW makes it the easiest work-flow I’ve had to date. Even if I want to ‘resample’ various layers of other VST instruments…or pre-recorded audio tracks…the new ‘Instant Rendering’ features of CuBase 8 makes it a breeze. If I want to do something similar, but with one of my hardware synths (say the Fantom XR), I just build a MIDI template, set up the XR, start an audio track recording from a spdif input, set some punch-in/out points, tap the record button, and go have some coffee and give my ears a break from monitor fatigue.
From there I just cut up the audio event into manageable slices/parts/events with the scissor tool, and drag them right onto a H5 zone, a granular synth module, or into GA4 and go to work. I love how I can start out with a general set of sound shaping envelopes at the zone layer if I wish, then work my way down to individual samples. Can even megatrig individual samples in a zone…and never have to touch a text editor or scripting language! They make it super intuitive to assign any little parameter in the synth engine to any kind of midi event or other automated or remote DAW trigger I want. Excited that I’m freed from the limits of ‘midi channel data’, and can bend the pitch, filters, dynamics, and effect processors of individual notes on a track one by one (VST3 note expression…add the power of Logic Editors, and that opens up new horizons in editing soundscapes). Blown away at how easy it is to copy layers and make key or CC switched variants, yet only add a few kilobytes of data to the patch. Impressed by how easy it is to drag in alternating layers, mega-triggers, arps, etc…without needing a script editor and practice in said scripting language. Totally amazed at how the Project and Track Logic Editors of CuBase/Nuendo kind of become an extra set of hands in the overall process of crafting a H5 patch.
In short, the DAW itself IS the ‘sampler’, and in the case of CuBase/Nuendo, it becomes a super layer building tool…where I no longer think of it in terms of building a sample with a set of stereo inputs…but rather, as having unlimited sampler inputs (or in live scenarios, limited by the number of inputs in my audio interface) 
For folks into surround sound sampling…a Nuendo/H5 setup might actually be the best choice on the market right now.
I.E. Take a 16 track sound-scape…highlight it, do an instant render, and bam, it’s mixed down to a stereo sample ready to drag right into the synth-engine. Need that to be a 7 channel surround sound sample? The DAW has ya covered on that as well
In this scenario, don’t think of the DAW and Synth as two different tools. It’s all the same integrated beast…
Now instead of thinking on a patch by patch micro level…my mind works more in a big sound-scaping level.
Much of my perspective probably flys totally out of the window if trying to use H5 with any other DAW or Scoring package. To be taken more seriously as a universal sound engine for boxing and selling instruments…you’re 100% correct that they need a version available with all of the key features you’ve been referring. With CuBase it’s super easy to just sample right there in the DAW and drag it anywhere you want. Instant Rendering makes it really easy to resample other VST/plugin textures for further manipulation in the H5 or GA4 synth engine. Pry H5 away from CuBase/Nuendo, and it most likely feels like a terribly crippled, glorified rompler engine.