And, as with any other forum on the Interwebs, occasionally trolls rear up.
This is a simple matter. You prefer your current equipment. Awesomesauce. But to criticize something upon debut and having not actually played with it comes real close to speaking out of ones secondary orifice. Line 6 is (finally) re approaching professional grade tone. I've been futzing with my HD500 for years now and am finally comfortable with the tones I'm generating. Comfortable; not thrilled. If Helix actually has the tone values presented in the teaser videos, it is a game-changer for them.
My Bananas-at-Large guy is going to call me when they get a unit in to their Santa Rosa store and I'm going to test drive it using one of my guitars and my Roland practice amp. If it is as good as it appears to be, I am going to purchase it. Axe is a great product, but the niche is like Apple devices. You are enslaved to their protocol. Kemper is laborious at best, Axe is number 1. If the Helix is as user friendly as it appears it is going to push Axe to up the ante, which is going to push Helix to up the ante, etc. Provided we don't get nailed with Helix XD or whatever in a year and a half, this is going to be a platform we can use for ten years. I do hope that L6 is more proactive with the updates and if they charge for tone packages, well, that's easy enough to get around (CustomTone has proven that).