I've long felt a lot of "vintage" gear is a caricature of the original, like some early "tube" mic preamps that were dirty as hell no matter the settings.
The difference:
The vintage gear was doing everything it could do to sound clean, with the "character" coming from (mostly) unwanted side effects.
The copies start from the other end, doing everything they can to sound "dirty". I'm guessing they don't want their customers to miss the effect to subtlety, so they make sure you can "appreciate" the character!