Which one of these is more pleasing to the human ear?

I personally have never heard a model that I thought was better than a finely tuned mic/amp setup.  However, I myself struggle greatly with capturing said fine mic/amp setup.  In the hands of better recordists and better guitarists who dig in and get the best tone they can out of their rigs, it can be a mind blowing difference.  I recently mixed a session in which Brent Mason played on it.  Needless to say I was in awe of his tone.  I can't get near it.  A lot of it was in his hands, granted but he had that rig singing.  And the engineer who recorded it captured it perfectly.  


So, models may not be better per say, but sometimes, they're better for ME cause I'm just not skilled enough to get 100% out of a rig when it comes to capture.  One could make a life study of just recording guitar and they would have their hands full IMO.  Models work for me most of the time better than recording my amps (especially high gain stuff).  I just can't get near it live.  But that's my shortcomings.

Henge (who is a member here) gets some pretty damn good results with his work.  I can't get get near that level.  Wish I could.