hi Chrisliting, just my cents here.
after having played guitar for something like 43 years, I came to the conclusion that the gain factor is mostly on the hands. might sound philosophic, but that was my exprience.
check out my signature, especially the teazers on my soundcloud. believe it or not but each dist sound you hear, I mean the highest one in gain, have the setting at not more than 75% of setting. the highest I remember didn't exceed 7.5 in gain. no OD pedal or booster whatsoever...........this is why I like so much the plexi profiles because they respond to the hand strenght: you go easy you have a crunch, you go super easy you have an almost clean....you go hard you get what you hear in my clips.
michael