well considering you own a few amps..and Scott Peterson, the administrator of TGP...which has thousands of dollars more in amps than you have...and he loves the axe fx...I dont see how it could be called garbage....have you even bothered to listen to an Axe Fx? It also has excellent studio quality effect as I have been told, and can be run just as an effects processor into a guitar amp or something. Look at TC electronics and their G units, etc. Just about as expensive if not more and without amp modelling.
If anybody here knows what its like to haul around a 4x12 and a full size head by YOURSELF twice, even once a week...they can perhaps sympathize with me. some will say, "yeah well I would rather haul around a big amp and have great tone." whatever...modelers sound good if you know how to use them properly. If you have heard a good modeler through a decent PA system, or even a keyboard speaker, wow...they can be very good.
If you run it through a guitar amp, and treat a modeler like a guitar amp in setting it up, you probably wont get very good results.
anyway, like it or not, technology improves. So does guitar equipment.