Sort of settled for a lot flabby bass and rolled off top and bottom because extension and my geniune understanding and appreciation for it came later in the game so I wasted a lot of great gear to be honest.I would not settle for that either- and that is not what tubes are about, although I certainly agree that if things are not right- that is what you will get.
You don't need to suffer a loss of bandwidth at either end. Tubes can go to DC, and the same tube can go to many MHz- so if the circuit is right, the speed and bandwidth should not be a problem.
I went down a similar path although a very long time ago- amps of the quality of the Pass were not available back then so I wound up building my own stuff. Because I played in an orchestra I had some idea of what real instruments were supposed to sound like. The amps and preamps I eventually developed have the bandwidth and speed one expects of good solid state gear (accomplished by having direct-coupled outputs on both the amps and preamps, just like solid state but without the harshness). But if you didn't know that sort of thing existed, you might not believe it could be so.
If something like the Pass had existed back then I might not have been challenged enough to make my own gear. Nelson knows what he is doing!
I still don't understand how it came down to the two preamps you asked about, but in the end it doesn't matter- what *does* matter is that it works for you!