soundfont target engines

I've noticed that many of the handbook linked soundfont files including Msc's own were designed and edited with an E-MU chipset supporting Sound Blaster!. Is this just a historical curiosity or do the synthesizer parameters for mods, osc, filters, vib, reverb etc represent settings within Sound Blaster's DSP software? I have a lot of other sf2 files that appear, from what I can tell, to have been built on either pure hardware synths or keyboard samplers from the late 80's and 90's. (Ensoniq Mirage for example) This all occurred before the collapse of the big studios. I can imagine a number of electronic keyboard players and synth "geeks" sitting at home and creating these things with their home computers. I wonder if there is any real reason to keep the sf2/3 format going anymore, and if not, just start all over again at the source.