The difference between tubes and solid state that I am finding

It always depends on the particulars of a given amp/preamp, the tubes used, and the rest of the system, etc.  Plus it’s subjective, but in general I’ve found tubes to have a more holographic sense of space, textured harmonics, and realism that I haven't found with the SS amps I can afford, while solid state amps definitely tend to have more bass slam due to their greater damping factor.  

After years of owning both, I thought I had settled on full tubes, but added an SS amp in bi-amp setup to power the woofers a while back....best of both worlds.  

Yes, You identified the dominant differences. How prevalent the differences are also dependent on the designer and the rest of your system. 

Your comment on blossom is call midrange bloom... it is the natural fullness of the midrange... where most of the music happens. 

If you compared an all tube system that had its focus on reproducing nature sound like Audio Research, Conrad Johnson VAC. You would hear these qualities in spades. The bass would be nuanced, all the details would be there, but not highlighted... exaggerated and the midrange bloom would be rich. Tubed systems can be extraordinarily musical. 

An all solid state system would tend to turn your head by its details and probably the dominant (but some what undifferentiated thump) slam. Treble is very easy to create with solid state but difficult to do really high quality. Solid state are prone to sounding hard, analytical and can loose the music. 

The designer can attempt to make a solid state amp sound more musical and less like solid state. For example, Audio Research has released the S series amp (S100 and s200)... which are solid state but do not sound solid state at all. 

I owned primarily solid state for forty years... and one by one switched to all tube component for all my systems. They now sound detailed an incredibly natural and musical. You can see my system under my UserID under systems. I'd encourage you to create a virtual system as well. It's easy and really helpful to the folks on the forum. 

Depends on how you like your pasta.  Endless combinations and permutations of gear rendering same number of acoustic palettes.  I've several systems running and like them all.  I've owned several tube pieces, same with SS.  There is no RIGHT.  There's better..... and worse.  But no right.  Like finding the 'right' Monet.

I like tubes, but tired of the endless chase to re-tube, upgrade the tubes, wonder if they were still strong enough.  For me, SS, really really good SS ended that quest.  For me.

And I moved away from the richness, romance if you will of that tube sound and moved to immediate hard hitting live sound.  No listening fatigue, just live.  For me.

Enjoy the journey.