The Axe II simply has a lot of room to grow and the Ultra and Standard have pretty much reached their limits. The Ultra seems to have came about when Cliff had ideas that the Standard could not process. I'm sure with more resources at his disposal this time he has already considered this and prepared before hand.
And if Cliff has a brainstorm that the new II hardware could'nt take care of I definatley would want to hear that.!!!! but thats not to say that maybe the II is as good as it gets. we haven't heard it yet .... maybe this is the best tube emulation that can be done ?? wasn't that exactly what we were saying about the Ultra two weeks ago? and there is room for expanded and or new effects. (I think the Axe II is a dream machine) Most anyone of us would have paid the extra $200 just to get the hardware improvements but we will get all this great new updated software also..
If three years of thought went into this I seriously doubt we will outgrow the II in the forseeable future.. just my opinion