Well, there lies my problem with shelling out money blindly. Because to me that sounds you didn't tweak the duller sounding profiles, but went for the ones that sat in your particular mix the best without tweaking. Meaning TAF profiles have already been tweaked with an outboard eq to sit in a mix during tracking. Most (if not all) of the hobbyist free profiles do not have this.
I'm just extremely cynical about any claims of superior quality in audio in general, since it's entirely subjective what is "good". So much of it depends on what you have been listening to before you hear a particular sound, since that's what the brain will be comparing it to. Do an A/B/C comparison, first in order of A-B-C, then C-B-A, and you'll most likely change your preference on what was the best sounding. Then we also tend to prefer anything that is new, before we get accustomed with its sound, and start looking for the next "best thing ever".
Generally we tend to prefer brighter sounds with a scooped midrange to more warm and "dull" sounds, when doing simple A/B comparison. Then there's the whole thing about placebo too. (People paying for "fraqile harmonics", fridge magnets on power cords and cryo-treated tubes etc.)
So every time I hear the words "this is heads and tails above the rest" regarding audio quality I get pretty wary.