As I sort of alluded to in one of my earlier posts, the expertise and natural abilities of the user are really critical factors to getting the most authentic sound with a modeler. One particular problem is how do you gain the necessary experience so you can really dial in the perfect sound. The experience of playing with a bunch of amps and serving as an audio tech doesn't hurt, but not everyone has opportunities to do those things.
Some of it is natural aptitude. Some people prefer more of a set-it-and-forget-it approach. They like amps with very simple tone controls that they rarely touch. They find more complicated amps to be frustrating and confusing, so the idea is to find an amp that sounds great right out of the box. This type of person is unlikely to be happy with a modeler.
Other people enjoy amps with more features and flexible, powerful tone controls. The tend to have more interest in, and an intuitive feel for how to get different sounds, and may be frustrated by amps with simple controls that don't do much. This type of person is more likely to enjoy working with a good modeler.
I am not really familiar with current modelers, but what I have seen in the past is you have to wade through a lot of pages to make changes. What's really nice about using an amp or pedals is all of the controls tend to be right at your fingers, instead of buried deep in some submenu.
It helps if you have some sort of objective idea of what all the parameters actually do, so you have to study and build a knowledge base of the different factors that make up our concepts of tone. The is why I asked if you can objectively describe what valve tone means. If you can't then you really have not identified any/ or many of the individual factors or qualities that give sound a tubey quality. IMHO this is the first place to start.
