Digital vs. Analog (Was: Line 6 Tonecore Verbzilla)

[Kevin <kevin@TheNettles.com>]

I don't want to seem like a troglodyte or anything but I wonder if 
people have simply considered a judicious selection of analog pedals 
and a good cab simulator instead of digital simulations.  I have a 
modest pedal board with pitch-shifter, delay, distortion, wah, reverb 
and chorus but I never seem to run out of incredible sounds to create 
from it.  I've tried a number of digital boards but the problems I 
have with them are twofold:

First, patches aren't intuitive. I don't know exactly what I'm 
getting as I do when I'm tweaking knobs.  There's a discontinuity 
that I find very disconcerting.

Second, digital simulations seem to break down at those very points 
that I find most interesting when I'm working with analog effects. A 
digital howl disappears just when I want to goose it with excessive 
amounts of gain or with total abuse of my wah or  pitch-shifter 
pedal.  A low level multi-harmonic hum fades just when I want to 
capture it in a loop.

Am I alone here or are their other folks who like to abuse analog or 
even acoustic effects?  Or will I finally see the light and buy a 
laptop to cultivate my very own VST farm?

Cheaply,
Kevin