Hmm, years ago, I remember reading an interview with a boutique amp manufacturer — I don't recall who — and he said his sales went up dramatically when his amps were included in some Line 6 gear and some plugins. Now, this was before the Axe-FX and Kemper were popular, and definitely before the Line 6 Helix, so those modelled tones wouldn't have been indistinguishable from the real thing. Perhaps people are exposed to Friedman or whatever in these devices and then lust after the actual amps? I'd like to think so anyway.
It was Carol Ann amplifiers - Alan Phillips
Alan also stated that he worked with Fractal to create a model of the Triptik 2 inside the Fractal, before he actually created the amp. The Fractal modeling (in advance), helped him understand what it would sound like when it was actually built.