I have yet to read of anyone who has gone the other direction from SET, to High watt beast class A amps or others.
I DID go the other direction. More on that later. SET does some unique things that few others can do quite so well. Really good OTL actually has some of these qualities and ads some of its own. Nothing seems to get the living breathing palpable human presence like a great SET rig, at least not without spending a year's sallary or more. That presence is haunting in a great SET rig. What it traditionally does not do as well at is the extremes of frequency extension. It's all about the midrange presence and holographic presentation in space. It is addictive if you really appreciate those qualities. One other thing it is not good at is complex, layered music like orchestral or hard rock. Advocates will argue that they enjoy those genres on their SET rigs, as did I on occasion. I would respond that they are much better served by other topologies. I got hooked on SET and remained hooked for just over six years. Other amps came and went, but my Quicksilver 300B SET amps stayed. I found that haunting 'presence' they offered to be addictive. They did meet their match, no, that's not right...I found something that did everything so well, with such balance and finesse, including presenting a palpable holographic stage, albeit not the rival of SET, but with so much more all-round performance while not giving up too much (much more so than anything else I'd heard with the only exception being perhaps Atma-Sphere OTL amps which also sound very compelling to me offering much of what SET has to offer along with the frequency extension they lack). The amps that de-throned my SET amps were Modwright KWA 150 amps. I never thought I'd have a SS amp again as they'd never really grabbed me enough to even consider one, but this just does not sound like any SS amp I've heard. Disclaimer: Dan is a client of mine. Make of that what you will, but I sold my 300b's to afford the KWA. The KWA sound definitely gives a knod to tubes, but I would not define it as "tube-like". It also has SS qualities in spades, especially in grabbing the low end by the barnacles and not letting go, yet it does not sound like SS either. I'd mostly been drawn to tube amps and have owned many over the years, as well as having enjoyed others in close friend's systems. The only other SS amp I'd heard that would have me consider owning it was an Ayre. Mind you, no SS amp I've heard can do what SET can do quite as well, but SET has a fairly narrow appeal in terms of what it does well, and what music it suits best (IMO - again, advocates may argue but that's been my experience). To the OP's question - it's certainly a path I'd look into if you are after very natural, palpable presence, but do be aware of its limitations. Is it the path we should all end up at - absolutely not. I can imagine there are many people who would not appreciate what SET has to offer and would choose other qualities. There is no path we should all end up at. The choices are infinite. So many amps, so little time.