The whole tone thing is absolutely pointless subjective nonsense in my opinion.
Bass is bass.
I played an outdoor gig (mini Festival in a large garden) last weekend, no FOH, just amps and cabs. My two 1x12 Ashdowns were right on the limit, so I cracked up the mids to get more perceived 'volume'.
I usually have a much milder, deeper tone, so to my ear the whole gig sounded like a horrible scratchy mess.
Afterwards, I had several people approach me, including the bass players from the other two bands, saying how great the bass sounded. We recorded the gig, and even listening back it sounds awful to me.
So by all means, spend a fortune chasing "that sound". If it makes you happy and gives you more confidence as a player, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But just know that the rest of the world probably either couldn't care less, or has a totally different perception of tone than you do.