I used to worry about recall but eventually realised I made more and more interesting music when I treated my gear like a regular musical instrument and just recorded myself playing to audio. Perfect recall put me in a brain loop of endless tweaking that didn’t actually benefit the music at all, it would all just end up sounding overthought. Plus I had more fun doing it. This was a bit of a revelation for me. Obviously, whatever works for you works for you, but just a counterpoint.
Of course, that's what really matters most. I do appreciate that the infinite possibilities, permutations and even extreme convenience all-in-one digital integration provides can become a downside. It really depends on personal style, preferences and goals.
Confronted by all that boundless possibility, I have sometimes found myself freezing up with 'possibility agoraphobia' or just rat-holing into the tweak-cycling you describe. Ultimately, I figured out I have to enforce some discipline on myself - which felt a bit odd since I'm strictly doing this for fun. My realization was that the needed discipline can either be embedded in the tools or style I choose or I can choose to enforce it on myself - which is its own burden. Every approach has its benefits and costs. No free lunch :-).
In a broad sense, I suspect any of the different approaches (all acoustic, analog, digital or some hybrid) represent sweet-spots that balance latitude and constraints in different ways. All that truly matters is finding one that meets us where we are in the moment and feeds our soul.
Yeah, I think a bit of difference gives it a bit more character, fully agree. Recall is more about being in the transition between two different songs when performing, and needing to get to a start point that works with what you're transitioning to. For jamming, it's fun to spend 2-3 minutes finding a sound that works, but for performance or recording, it gets really tiresome to manually patch 20 cables on the fly.
But as you say, no right or wrong, we all do things under different circumstances and contexts, and what works for someone is wrong for another, and all that :)
