Thank you, Zed, for adding some real signal to the otherwise high noise level on this board.
I get a kick everytime I hear someone who says that the only way to get a good amp sound is to actually mic an amp, then take their miked recording and throw enough EQ and comp at it to sink a battleship. By the time they're done the result sounds about as much like the original amp sound as I look like George Clooney. (Trust me, you'd never mistake us in a police lineup

)They could have have recorded the guitar with a tin can and a string for all you can tell by the time they're done mangling the signal.
On the other hand, I mixed and mastered a song a few weeks ago where - for logistical reasons - the guitarist laid several tracks down through a Pod. With just some slight tweaking of EQ, judicious panning and the addition of some optical compression and synthed analog saturation (a set up that took all of about 10 minutes to work out), we wound up with a fat raunch sound that rivaled any quality miked amp sound.
Would I rather mic an amp? In many cases, yes...depending on the context of the rest of the song. But does recording direct necessarily mean a comprimised sound? Not always.
G.