I've got one of those amps. Little Vox mini-stack - does 4, 1 and 1/4 watt - and I've used it on recordings before, but generally on the 1 or 4 watt settings.
I've been through the very low wattage amp craze (though nothing as low as 1 or 1/4 watt kind of stuff)...and I don't deny that you can get a decent tone out of those little amps, but it often ends up being like one basic tone that hits the sweet spot, but then there's the simple concept of moving air that those little amps just can't do.
I mean...might as well just use a pedal to create the "big amp crunch tone", and turn the amp volume way down on your bigger wattage amp...kinda the same effect, IMO.
Not saying you can't get by without the speaker/cab contribution to tone...but I've totally gone in the opposite direction, and now like to track guitars LOUD, so that the speakers/cabs also come into play...and then you get a tone that is hard to match with a 1/4 amp or some DI/sim setup. Those tones can be OK...but when the speaker is chugging, you're in a different tone zone, and that's the tones that I've come to like best (YMMV/etc/etc).
You need like a bold 30W to 50W amp to really hit that "moving air" tone zone...and there's also something to be said for going with the bigger 100W amps. I thought I wouldn't need any 100W amps for pure studio work, and what I had, I got rid of several years ago...but now, my next amp will most likely be a 100W amp, just so I can add that to the tone color palette. I have a few in the 50W range...and a couple in that 25W range, but I always like the bigger amps more lately when tracking...so I figure, 100W is more than 50W...how can I go wrong with that?
It's like the whole going to "11" thing.
Seriously though...no one should assume that in a studio setting, there is no need for loud amps.
Of course...if you have other issues (neighbors, sleeping babies)...then that's a different reason to go low.
Oh...I also agree with the notion that you can't do it all with 112 cabs in the studio. You gotta have at least a couple of big-box 212 cabs along with the 112 options...and a 412 wouldn't hurt, which I know Greg always use to also say here.
I had a sweet 412...which is another thing I got rid of several years ago...and kinda wish I hadn't...but I just got my Sour Mash 212 slant a few days ago...and it certainly makes me not miss the 412. Very sweet cab, solid build...Birch throughout (no plywood or particle board crap)...and it's as big as a compact 412. I mean, you could almost fit four 12" speakers in it side by side. It's got the dual 12s set up diagonally top to bottom. Great cab, I recommend the Sour Mash cabs to anyone looking for something custom built.