I would say that yes is probably the most likely answer. It isn't so much that all tube amps are better than any other given SS amp, they certainly aren't, but dollar for dollar, tube amps seem to win out in overall tone. If you have a $100 tube amp and a $100 SS amp, the tube amp will be significantly less complicated and sophisticated, but it will do the one thing it does better than any one of the many things a SS amp would.
Tube amps are also generally more expensive, adding perceived values to them. If you buy a Jet City JCA50H, you will feel better about it than if you bought a Line 6 Spider head for about the same money. The L6 does a whole lot more, perhaps sounds just as good, but is an L6 unit and one of their lowest lines. This brings us to the next perceived value point. Stigma and clout. If you walk on stage with a Line 6 Spider, you have to be a really damn good player to sell it to the cork sniffers in the room. Conversely, if you set up a Bogner Shiva, the cork sniffers just shut up and listen, because they already know that the amp is not a limiting factor. So tube amps tend to hold more value to the players, boosting confidence and pride in your playing.
I think that even to this day, there is just more refinement in tube amps than there is in SS designs. Most SS designs are budget-oriented and in the case of high-end modelers such as the Axe FX, Kemper, and even L6 Helix lines, they are still in their infancy, have not completely figured out the feel and sound of the amplifiers they emulate, and given the cost never could. Is a $2k Axe FX modeler better than a $2,000 Friedman? I contend no if the Friedman is the only amp you need to get the sounds you want. The compromise in amplifier modeling is built into the modeler itself. It is an emulation of MANY amps that individually cost more than the modeler itself, so how can it possibly be equal? Until they figure out how to make a modeler sound and feel like an amp in a room, it will be a cute parlor trick that is used either for convenience or for budgetary reasons. I don't think people use them because they are truly the best thing since sliced bread.
As an example, Tosin Abbasi has gone back to backline amplifiers ( Morgan Amps I believe ). The major thing that I think the modelers just seem to be stuck on ( foolishly ) is trying to create the sound of a guitar in a room that is then played back in a room. They replicate the guitar amp and cabs sound as it would be if it were mic'd up and in a room, and then you listen back to it while playing in a room. That is just silly if you ask me. Why not make the model sound exactly as if it was the amp and forget about the microphone and room modeling? Focus on getting the touch and feel right, and not complicating the sound with multiple mics and their locations, and all this other stuff that a guitarist doesn't generally have control over.
So yeah, I think guitarists will almost all invariably end up resolving to own a tube amp at some point. It just does what it does right.
