Jay,
Eagerly awaiting the Kronos vs Taiko/MSB comparison. But you will need the same recording in both vinyl and digital formats to make this an apples/apples meaningful comparison. Do you have a few of these paired recordings? Otherwise it would be an apples/oranges comparison.
The basic disadvantage of all digital systems is the tandem A/D and D/A conversions. As you have learned, especially with the 3010, is that all other preamps have electronic colorations. The same applies to tandem A/D and D/A electronics. Sure, digital has the elegance of storing numbers instead of complicated analog waveforms. Does the storage advantage outweigh the lack of purity from the tandem electronic stages? You'll find out.
Even though I have praised the detail of some digital, with some recordings sounding very natural, I admit there is some artificiality which sounds electronic. So I may criticize euphonic cartridges like Koetsu and many others I have had, but there is that analog ease. This ease is not the euphonic warmth or rounding off the edges, but it is the smooth character of live, unamplified instruments, which have superb detail AND ease.
It is good that you don't have to crank up the volume to be satisfied with the 3010 in the chain. So now you can reconsider a bypass test with the 3010. At low levels of 20-60 dB, I believe that using the 3010 will still add the slightest smidgen of electronic coloration, compared to eliminating it from the chain. NO electronic stage is perfectly transparent, although the 3010 comes the closest. Here is where there is a reasonable tradeoff for you. If the 3010 is 99.9% transparent, that is good enough so that the extra dynamics it provides for loud music is worth it. But all other preamps have been only 90-95% transparent, so the extra dynamics from those preamps come with a significant drawback of warm/fuzzy colorations.
A long time ago, I had this epiphany of transparency by eliminating the line stage, so I know the way you are feeling now, with the most transparent line stage--the 3010. The first 20 years of my audiophile life was using a phono preamp for my analog. In those days, preamps were for phono. Nobody talked about a line stage without a phono stage. Of course, the main reason for the amplification in the phono stage was for the RIAA EQ, plus the huge 60-70 dB gain required for low output moving coil cartridges. I found I had plenty of gain from the phono stage, so all I needed was a volume control, which I use in my Rane EQ. Those folks like mrdecibel who have dynamic speakers like horns do best with passive attenuators. My father mainly listened to his FM tuner with its volume control, and didn't need any line stage because he had plenty of gain and dynamics for his Altec horn speaker. You may have plenty of gain from your Boulder phono stage. The next frontier for you to explore is whether a top quality passive attenuator has better transparency than the 3010. Mrdecibel said there is no line stage that approaches the purity of his passive attenuator, but of course he never tried anything like the 3010.