I used a DigiTech BP80 as my entry point into pedals. I figured I could learn what sounded like what, what combinations worked well, and then find really the best sounding individual effects pedal for each sound I wanted. That kept my pedal board in a state of flux for several years before finally landing on a setup that lasted 4-5 years with little change, other than adding things that hadn't previously existed (or were affordable), such as the SA C4 after years of wanting a Deep Impact. Then the Future Impact, and was almost going to get one, when I learned of the C4's then-imminent arrival. The Collider then made me ditch the EHX Canyon, but still stayed solid until going all Source Audio following the UltraWave's release. I found their sculpability and design to work in a sonic ecosystem to be like navigating one giant multi effects unit, and saving scenes to the Soleman MIDI controller to call up with a single stomp reinforces that notion. But still with the in depth tweakability of the individual pedals to achieve new sounds and new combinations.
Haven't tried the HX or H9. I was just astonished when I had learned the H9's only did two effects at a time, because I had seen how much they cost. Still no desire to change from what I have now. And I owe a lot of that to starting out with the BP80 a dozen years ago, because I got a good feel for sounds I liked and wanted to be able to get. That search will always continue, but I think SA's array of pedals offers me the best options of finding and teasing out those sounds.
ETA: And one could count some of the SA pedals as multi-effects, particularly the UltraWave, which has, literally, 42 distortion engines (with 4 possible channels of distortion/clean at a time and possible morphing between them), compressor/expander, multiband/single band tremolo, LFO/envelope generator, noise gate, phasing, and sequencing.
