Much of what we think of as "good" guitar tone is largely the judicious use of key pieces of studio gear - tape compression, Pultec EQs, Distressors, SSL center sections, Neve channels, GML 8200s, various hyped mics and an arsenal of reverbs and echoes ranging from LMT plates to Sunset Sound chamber 1. If it actually sounds awesome in person in the room or in an unprocessed room mic, we can talk about magic amps, speakers, pickups etc. Otherwise I don't want to hear it.
The tones most people like on record are FAR brighter than what they like in person.
Marshalls (other than maybe the JCM2000 and JVM) are seriously overrated for anything other than pure rock playing.
Closely related, your "rolled back" cleans aren't clean. They are shitty cleans.
The advantages late 60s through 80s 100w Marshalls have (namely very uncongested mids and very stiff/uncompressed transients) are only really useful in 2-guitar bands. In a 1-gutiar band you want to fill more space than that and don't want your transients to be that pokey. Buy a Bogner or Soldano instead.
Trying to be "metal" especially in terms of gear is tiring. Just stop. Trying to be "metal" in terms of behavior is even more tiring but that's a different controversial opinions thread.
When you say "it sounds good/great/tight boosted" I just mentally replace that with "it sounds shitty" and move on. If you want to sound like a cheap gain pedal, you do you. That has a place - and the place is playing with backline (although you should be judicious in selecting your gain box). If you're running through an expensive amp of your choice there's no excuse.
I don't really want an amp to be super tight.
What you want in your monitors and what you want in the mains/in the final mix/in the room are radically different. Almost all players play better with a fairly dynamic/uncompressed monitor signal. What you actually want in the room is much more compressed. You cannot use the same signal for both and be totally happy. But you'll do better with a more room-like sound in the monitors than vice versa. Your articulation will suffer a bit but that's life.
