Another clarifying question: would it be in the spirit of this challenge to have multiple midi tracks but send all of them through only one instance of a plugin on a bus? Like - use the pitch wheel, but have it affect only the melody, use an arpeggiator, but only on the bassline, counterpoint by midi channel... anything like that? I'm not asking to bend the rules, just to get a feeling for the intended limits.
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Hmmm this is an interesting idea.
While I do think that would create some interesting ideas I think my answer here is this:
Any effect that you want to use is fair game so long as they can be used during the same performance of your respective instrument. So in your case if you can only use a pitch wheel or the arpeggiator on the composition in its entirety, then that is part of the limitation. You can absolutely use those ideas you've mentioned here as their own sections of the piece, no problem, but overall I would very much prefer that the song feel like you are making those kinds of adjustments on the fly as if you were sitting down and playing through the piece yourself.