Friend of mine got a gt1000, we spent around 2-3 hours testing it with mostly studio monitors. He has recording in mind just as much as casual jamming so aside browsing some presets, we mainly focused on the amps in that time period.
Starting with the bad; Boss really shot itself in the foot by preparing too many presets that are so "wet" with delays, reverbs and complex routings. Sure they're fun (for a few seconds) and I understand many out there will enjoy even use them in their songs, but there are likely even more also paying x2-3 to get that %10 extra realism on amp tones...even in the 90's most hated such presets.
So what I'm saying is such fx can really make tones sound fake and it reflected to most of youtube demo video's I watched till now, even a high-end analog rig can sound fake with chains like that. Sure you can disable, which can be such a drag at times and likely a bad influence for one (typical hobbyist level) who just started to create their own tones. I demo'd a helix-fx on a laney tube amp last week and even that unit wasn't so crazy on the creative presets (with the wet/dry parameter). They should have favored more professionally made recording-ready traditional amp tones for X genre or era.
Aside that, I see that the "gain sw" parameter is still there. The moment you start exploring the gt1000, one quickly realises they tried to keep it clean by not placing a zillion amps or too many options of the same fx (zillion delay, comp. types etc.). So I felt that parameter shouldn't be there and tweaked internally per-amp, there are enough amps to cover super clean to super distorted anyway. It just complicates things.
And finally, the too smoothed top-end (or mid-sounding as another perspective) of cab.s which is the signature of Boss processors. Its not that bad or unmanageable with this unit but its there. Again Boss, was a good idea at the time but its not the 90's anymore and even with the resolution of my gt-1, I really didn't need that. Its easier for a user (even sound engineer) to smoothen the top end instead of opening/brightening the tone you know...
The good; Do this simple test if you haven't, connect your processor with its cab. sim. on to a playback system and play something relatively hard for you. Now disable the cab. and connect it to your amps return and play again. Aside the tonal difference, if you feel the touch response makes it even slight easier for you to play the same thing or gives a better feel (for me) this is what AIRD is.
Again this isn't about tone and I know quite a lot of good players who don't care for the feel and make an excellent job. But for those who care about this aspect, I think this is where the gt1000 makes the most difference in the competition.
As someone who likes high-gain, it was really easy to dial in tones. Its really not like that with my gt-1, a boost from a pedal is almost a must (aside maybe a recto) or things sound too fake. But I even felt the need to bring down the gain a few times with the gt1000. I'm not into djent like my friend is, but it took me a few seconds to dial in a tone on his 7 string which was the best we managed to make till now.
For advanced recording needs (4 or more tracks for chord stuff to get that wall-of-sound you hear on modern records) we preferred bias amps with Celestion cab.s for a while now. We blended some tones from the gt1000 and it really helped getting dimension to the overall sound. This is were the "boss sound" was actually useful to be fair to the unit.
I didn't get to the fx much and couldn't test pedals in detail so maybe I'll add them here later.
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