I never have liked anything from Line6, especially the distorted/crunch tones. I went through the Helix Native demo more than a few times hoping it would be better, but nope. Same goes with BIAS from Positive Grid, a company that seems more interested in being bought out than actually make sense out of their product line. To me, Helix and BIAS suffer from the same problem: sounds good when you listen to it, feels awful when you actually play through it. I find that AmpliTube 4 has decent models but you canāt load IRs in it, which is beyond annoying as some of the stock cabs sound like cardboard to my ears.
As far as the paying options go, Mercuriall are my favourite. They also have two OD pedal sims for free, which are nice. While the dynamics are lacking I like Peaveyās ReValver for gain tones. Its noise gate is set to be very clean as well, so itās not very musical and I prefer using a plugin like GGate in front of it to tweak the gate a bit more. If youāre into high gain amps, for free you can get either of the two Ignite Amps sims: the Anvil and the Emissary. LePou plugins work fine as well.
Aside from that, you should start by trying to set up a simulation the same way youād set up a real amp. To me it means a decent OD pedal simulation, a good amp and a good cab, and start with similar settings as well. Have confidence in your ears and donāt hesitate to turn the knobs. The time wasting part of the process is often to get good cab impulses and actually settle on one. OwnHammer has a free IR pack of a M/B Slant 4x12 with V30s, and thatās way more impulses than youāll ever need unless you really want something specific.