Glad someone around here is stand on solid ground.
And many with that negativity, are just doing that so they can shill for their own commercial interests.
And yes nothing wrong with the "a straighwire with gain" adage, as it implies no colouration, which is a distortion.
George lives on his own deserted island.But you live in the clouds and have no idea about:
switching frequency vs low order output filter vs resulting in phase shift down into the audio band.
Cheers George