I've had a VT, a BK3 and a rat tail. All moved on. I can imagine the darkglass would work for studio but I agree its not got the balls Live. It's too "nice"
The VT works well but depends on your rig. I liked it to add some grind to an Aguilar750 head which is a round thick sounding head. It didn't work as well with a Boogie M6 as that head has a lot of mid already.
The rat tail I thought was just a terrible version of a Rat. Massively fizzy without the cut of the original. The OCD and stache seem better clones.
I also find a blend pedal helps but I prefer a 2 channel pedal like the Sheehan pedal with a clean channel and dirty. Much more controllable but ultimately allows the bottom end to stay solid while you increase the amount of drive/distortion. On that note the wounded paw black sheep overdrive is good because you have a clean channel then 3 (low,mid,hi) separate overdrive channels to blend in. Other multi band pedals like the brimstone crossover distortion and the iron ether qf2 are maybe worth trying. They're on my list.
I also agree sometimes two pedals together will get the job done.
Final rant... If you find you need to get some "clank,grind,poke,chunk,balls,insert others here" from a cab or pedal a good way is using an eq pedal. I have a stone deaf parametric eq which I recommend if you want to fix a problem. It's great quality and very musical. You can sweep from 65hz to 3000hz. Use it to cut real unwanted high end or boost the lows, add some more mids etc.
if you have a pedal that's almost there I reckon the PDF1 would sort it.
Hope this helps.