It becomes even more "interesting" if you use Spitfire UACC! I have experimented with a couple different iPad controller apps, and this might prove to be pretty cool, but right now I end up spending more time focusing on the iPad than the music, so that's not working. Mostly it comes down to integrating one of these solutions, and thus far that has proven to be non-trivial. Bidule is another candidate, and there are scripts available that do the magic. Transmidifier is a stand-alone tool that can do all sorts of filtering and conversion, I've tried to get it to work as a single solution, but I'm not quite clever enough yet.
There are literally dozens of Kontakt scripts that provide conversion between CC and MIDI Note Number, but that limits one to Kontakt.
CC messages can be chased, as just mentioned above, which is a big benefit for me.My fantasy solution, and I am getting closer, is the ability to physically trigger articulation changes with key switches, but transform them to CC messages on the way in and send that CC message to Kontakt or Vienna Instrument or whatever, and record it as such. I too started down that Drum Map path, but found it too limiting.