I have had good luck with it, but it takes an adjustment in thinking and listening. If you still have the demo installed I would suggest trying the clean Duke preset I made for my Strat.
http://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/9-presets/7481-the-duke-clean
Finding the right IR and knowing it will never sound like an amp in the room...are key IMHO. You have to change your expectations to what the amp would sound like in another room, and your hearing the playback on studio monitors.
I also like the Fender collection in Amplitube for great clean tones.
This is just my opinion...I know you know what your doing Dave. Some people (like Batsbrew) insist on using real amps and mics. I probably would to if I had a good room where I could crank my amp up a bit and get the tubes hot and singing. For me...recording in a bedroom and keeping  peace with the wife. S-Gear has been the closest I've been able to find so far.
 

If you can't get a decent sound out of S-Gear I think the problem lies more in your fingers rather than the software..
It sounds better than some of the amps I've used over the years & even with my $150.00 stock Squier Tele

I've been looking at small studio amps over the past year, and it is actually possible to acquire one (that sounds good) for little more than the price of S-Gear. The main reason I haven't done so is that even if it sounds great, you're stuck with the sound of that one particular amplifier. I don't want to just do guitars with it; I want to do electric pianos, too. So I keep coming back to amp sims as the most practical solution.
 
Another observation is that I can make any sim sound OK, even Kontakt's built-in effects, playing low melodies. It's high notes that I have the most difficulty with.
 
I have used Amplitube and Guitar Rig and a bunch of freebies, and was never satisfied with any of them. Clint, I've heard some of the tunes you've posted and the guitars sound pretty good, and many fall within my target. Which of those are S-Gear? 
 
 
 

Which songs are you talking about? I would probably have to pull up the project and look to make sure. Most of the newer songs are S-Gear using tkdelay and Valhallavintageverb.
The older (Burning Bridges) songs are probably Amplitube or HD500.
 
None of them are real amps.

I was thinking in particular about your Santana tribute, which has some semi-clean high notes going on that I like, and especially Incognito's clean Strat-ish sound.

Viva Satana is S-Gear all the way...Incognito was Amplitube Fender Deluxe Reverb I think.
You would like S-Gear, I'm sure of it. The Wayfarer can get Fender type tones, but I like what the Duke does too when set for ultra clean stuff.

My finger twitched over the Buy button several times, but while I was mulling it over I found something else to blow my limited budget on. Ironically, it's a guitar library that could have used S-Gear I'm sure. Oh well, it'll have to be Guitar Rig until next Black Friday.

This brings up an issue for me with all the amp sims...most of which I find quite usable, if not amazing...the tone I'm after is not hard rock, metal or experimental...it's Robben Ford...Larry Carlton...Chuck Loeb... and Jeff Golub.

In other words, clean...but pushed...barely overdriven "boosted" tones. I've been able to dial in many useful facsimiles with my various emulators but nothing totally "wowing" as yet. I imagine it's only a matter of time...and what I can conjure now is, for the most part, indiscernible to most ears, so I don't over worry about it. I'm just happy to be living in an age where I can use either method I choose for both recording and live performance and know that it will work...and work well.

I own all the big ones and TH2 is by far my favorite. After that Guitar 5, then Positive Grid Bias/Amp FX, then S-Gear. YMMV

It just comes down to how close the sim can get to the tone that's in your head I guess. S-Gear is clearly the best one for me, but It's great that there are several quality products out there. It seems that all of us has been able to find something that works.