In my mind, albeit right or wrong line stage with lowest possible noise pre is the only way to go. The harmonic distortion of tubes, although, I understand sounds good to some, for me dulls the accuracy.. maybe that's needed for some speakers. Dunno. I listen to Dunlavy's. Just my personal experience. I'm sure others may beg to differ.
Many higher end preamps are dated and ugly, why is this?
Conrad Johnson, BAT, VTL are all very good preamplifiers, they are dated and just ugly. Audio research is a prettier amplifier but it's not very well regarded due to it sounding more like a solid state, ie. Not really a tube preamp despite all those internal lightbulbs.
Cheaper preamps can be more pretty. Schitt makes a pretty preamp for about $1000. People like pretty.
D'Agostino by many is viewed as very attractive but kind of weird.