Little lost with virtual instruments? There are so many!

I'm coming from a kind of "live band" background where I've been recording live instruments for projects for a while and using a few pads here and there from keyboards I have around the house. I'd really really like to start using more virtual instruments that I hear in modern pop production (nice pads, strings, solid drums), but I have NO idea where to get started.

I checked out East West, some Native Instruments stuff, etc, but there are just so many options out there that I'm not sure where I should spend my money, or what I should even search for to achieve some of these tones. Are lots of modern producers just using things built in to Ableton Live and Logic or are they all using plugins outside of those?