I'm more of a recording engineer than a guitarist (member of the AES for many years.) Shitty digital pedals from 20 years ago sound shitty, I agree! Well mode

I'm more of a recording engineer than a guitarist (member of the AES for many years.) Shitty digital pedals from 20 years ago sound shitty, I agree! Well modelled digital effects, however, can these days give you anything an analog pedal can. Most of the time, just run a high accuracy Spice model of the pedal in real time! Modern DSP is so cheap and fast that this is possible and works fine.