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Only reason I don't use an Ibanez or Maxon TS is the reason you posted up above- they're crazy dear and you can get the same thing for a lot less from other manufacturers.
Having said that, most people and most audiences can't hear any difference between a valve amp and a modeling amp...you've no idea the number of times at a gig that even valveheads thought my Valvetronix was an AC30..they saw what looked like an AC30, saw the Vox badge...their brains made the connection ...and their ears heard an AC30.
So, its probably only an experienced connoisseur playing in a confined familiar space at home or in a small club that's going to appreciate the difference. Kind of like a fine wine where most of the population couldn't tell the difference between say a £20 good supermarket claret and a £1,000 vintage claret. And if a vintage TS808/vintage claret gives real pleasure to someone that really appreciates it and can afford it, it's always nice to have something a bit special. But...whether it's really that special or whether it's psychological, kind of like the emperors new clothes, is perhaps debatable & in the ear of the beholder...or is it?
The only way of really determining whether there's a genuine identifiable aural difference is to undertake a complete independent blind (or in this case ear) test. Now, if there were nine decent TS clones lined up plus your TS808, and you couldn't see that little green box, do you really think you could spot that TS808 using only your ears? You see I'm very dubious. Why? Well, consider the following true event: -
On a tv game/challenge show programme some years back there was a music store owner who was a bass expert and an experienced session player. He boasted that he could identify 10 different bass guitars played through the same amp just by their distinctive tone, and he'd done this repeatedly in his store. So, they brought all his 10 selected bass guitars in, and someone played these through the same amp chosen by him, behind a screen. I can't recall the program name, but I don't think he got one right. He was totally bemused and couldn't understand it, saying they sounded so different in his store. The truth is that without the additional visual and touch connection, he actually couldn't determine which bass was which using only his ears.
So whilst I'm sure you genuinely perceived your TS808 was the best sounding overdrive you've ever heard, I strongly suspect that it was in a large part psychsematic/placebo effect and that if you were the contestant in a blind test you wouldn't be able to hear your pedals difference played by someone else, compared with nine others.
We all think we can hear the difference between certain similar gear, and we like to think what we hear on 'vintage' gear justifies the cost differential. E.g. a custom shop strat vs a vintage 1954 strat, a new Marshall jcm800 reissue vs a vintage jcm800 Marshall, or a 1959 LP Standard vs a Custom Shop '59 LP Standard. But in reality in a true blind test, it's a very rare person who can...and even then it can sometimes be a little more luck than judgement.