Well, it's the creation rather than the playback that's important, but you aren't really missing anything. It's not like the various waveshaping functionality of those aren't documented, they're entirely reproducible in software.
This is why most "audiophile" stuff is redundant in my mind, a lot of people seem to act like valves have some sort of magic that we cannot profile and just reproduce in software.
But then again there's nothing wrong with people romanticising stuff as long as it's more "valves are cool because they're retro and nostalgic" over "valves are cool because they're objectively better".
