Personally, I find the tonality and subjective realism of transformer-coupled vacuum tubes to be unmatched by other technologies, but that’s just me.
There are class D amps now that easily rival the best tube amps for every quality mentioned in the above post. Every bit as smooth in the mids and highs, depth properly portrayed, good low level detail and so on.
Instead of a 1/4" thick sculpted aluminum faceplate (marketing!), we put the money into custom parts that are in the audio path.
FWIW Dept.: A machined front panel can be used to reduce chassis resonance (by having a different resonant frequency as opposed to the chassis, the two rob energy from each other), making for a lower vibration environment for the tubes to do their work. If a circuit board is used, it can be isomerically isolated from the chassis, further reducing microphonic interaction. If no circuit board is used, the sockets themselves can be isomerically isolated from the chassis with similar results. Especially if the preamp is used in the same room as the loudspeakers, this has both measurable and audible improvements- bass is better, the mids and highs smoother with greater resolution. Damping materials can be added to most chassis, further assisting to reduce microphonics (distortion).