I thought I'd beat this dead horse once again.
Do you prefer using an amp's gain or using a pedal? Power tube saturation, or preamp gain? I'd love to play clean all the time, but let's face it, I need the crutch!!
I go back & forth. The power tubes sound the best, but are the least controllable, and require too much volume to get enough gain from. And to use an attenuator meant that the amp wouldn't be clean.
Pedals, like my OCD, sound great, but slightly unnatural.
Preamp drive is something of a happy medium. Sounds fairly natural, is controllable & footswitchable. So why isn't it my favorite? It's a little generic, maybe?
I think a pedal in front of a good amp gives me the best tone, in the end. It sounds a little unnatural, but with the right one it's the same kind of unnatural as a gorgeous girl with tons of makeup on the red carpet.