I have always maintained the Threshold Stasis Class A amps of the early eighties compete with tubes; I like them.
Do you really think there was a rush to tubes? They still comprise a very small fraction of the overall high end.Let me ask you; what was the reason as you see it for people to return to using tubes as amplification devices? I mean they are pretty expensive and problematic to implement. Why do people set themselves up for all that hassle?
All of the reasons people tossed them in the seventies are still valid; big/expensive/hard to place in a room/lots of heat/dangerous/lot of maintainence.