Everything @uk_lefty said 👆 there is an exact mirror to my pedal board experience. I once even went to the extreme of owning a board fully loaded with effects all the same (not budget) brand and just thought, meh, in the end and got rid.
I blew hot, I blew cold. I spent months programming patches and then wished I could twiddle individual pedals sur le mouche.
Only now has the penny dropped. It's not anything to do with getting the right sound, or even a good sound.
It's all about the board itself.
Building it, stripping it back, velcro versus 3M, battery versus mains, effects loops versus straight in, clean signals alongside effected/affected signals, several distortions in parallel as opposed to one in series. Geraniums or silly cones, digital or analogue, self made patch leads, shop bought patch leads, flat or round patch leads, hard case, soft case, single tier, double tier, always on, midi controlled, and a million other considerations.
These are not things you plough through en-route to the ultimate board, these are actually the reasons for having a pedal board in and of themselves.
Oh, and handmade British boutique pedals created from old Marconi radio parts and housed in a train set controller.
Oh yes, make no mistake. It's an addiction. Another obsessive, illogical, train spotty, borderline spectrum disorder, largely male, fanatical, self feeding, collecting hobby.
And that's why I love it.