As always this leads to the point where the open discussion has no result. There is a difference, might it be good or bad, who cares. I do not have a battery of amps to compare. But what I can say is that I like about 2-5% of profiles I hear and these are more than enough. I have fun playing these and the band members, sound engineer and audience like them too. What do we want more?
The possibilities outrange the tonal nuances by far in my opinion. If I would change back from KPA to valve technology my amp setup would cost me about 4000$ including 2 or 3 pedals.
I like the idea of putting some reverse delay or octaver on for 1 intro or solo without having to spend 200$ on a pedal, search for it, reorganize my board, sell it etc. Modeling was neber a point for me, even in the first 1 or 2 years of the KPA. But since they are optimizing and developing their software on and on and with having the Remote it outranges valve technology in live situations for me.
I appreciate the free updates. I would be not very happy having to pay for each new OS version. But I will pay for a KPA standalone floorboard which only does performance mode. Like a remote with an audio processor.