Sorry but I'm only talking about my own experience. Seems to me like the OP was indeed questioning amp modelers per se so I do think that I was on topic even though you might have heard my point before.

And I certainly didn't say "amp sims suck, real amps are better". I just said that sometimes the most obvious thing (like miking up a small amp) might get overlooked. As a guitar player, I went through the 'rack phase' in the late 80s/early 90s where you pretty much HAD to show up with Exciters, SPX 90s and a lot of blinking lights in your live rig. At some point, after having huge trouble with hiss and dropouts during a soundcheck I just went direct into the Marshall with maybe a Boss distortion still in line. It sounded WAY better and it was a big lesson to me.

IMHO, YMMV, FWIW