qwerty42

The first two clips sounds like DI recordings. The last clip, I can clearly hear the strings of the guitar being picked, meaning it was recorded from a mic'd cab or coming out of monitors. All the difference you're hearing is likely due to that alone, because recording a sound coming out of monitors will be colored by the speakers themselves, the natural reverb of the room, and the signal chain of whatever microphone was used to record it...

This ^^^ I find it so much better that way. IMO that should be the default behavior. Plus it prevents changing the block to a different amp/effect if you rotate the wheel accidentally. I lost count of how many times I did that after carefully dialing in an amp or effect and losing my settings because I hadn't saved yet :\

Yes it can. You'll need one of these: https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter I use an iPad with mine all the time, to play along with external audio, record simple stuff into garageband, etc. Works great.