haha, that was a saying my old boss used to drill into me...
"the less shit in between you and the tape machine, the better" thats another one of his quotes.
Its funny how people view effects units, to me, anything that adds value to your sound, is great, no matter how much it costs. Ive seen guys shell out $300 for a box that had two transistors, 3 resistors and 2 capacitors, and thought it was the greatest effect unit ever made. I never have the heart to tell them to price the parts from Radio Shack... ;)
Cheers