I don't play heavy music, I'm an 'edge of breakup' player, but I completely agree. Sure, there are times I use pedals (I've said many times I occasionally use them at very low settings for a different color),
I'm more of a melodic player, not a chugger, shredder, or djent person.
Developing a melodic line involves not only hitting the right notes, and whatever legato or detache playing is called for, it also involves varying dynamics, building energy or reducing it as the melody moves along. For me, that's more expressive than having only one dynamic.
I buy an amp for its sensitivity to nuance and dynamic range. It works the way I work.
The concern I've always had about overdrive pedals is that as transistors clip, they over-compress the signal and tend to kill dynamic range.
For me, that ruins the things I bought the amp for. Stacked pedals, for example, become so heavily compressed that for me - YMMV - that technique is not desirable.
While a distorted tube also tends to compress a signal, it's got a different vibe, and retains more dynamics - a well-designed overdriven amp retains its feel.
Certainly, compression isn't always a bad thing, but most of the time I want to keep my amp's dynamic range intact.
Of course, the beauty of being a musician and anything in the arts, really, is that it's all personal; it's all about the individual player's vision and preference for self-expression. That means everyone is right in their own preferences. My thinking only applies to me, and I share the thinking only to say, 'consider this possibility'.
