I completely agree what you're saying. The three things that make or break IR's for me are:
1-Dimensionality I know it's not a word, what I mean is does it have depth/space to it not sounding 1 dimensional or just like an EQ curve.
2- Does it sound clean/clear? Not in a speaker break up way but more like does the IR itself add noise or dirt in a non-musical way.
3- Does it have an organic,open top end bite? Not fizz but that air that a real speaker has, this is the hardest thing for me to find in an IR.
When I first got the AFX II back in December 2011 my ears were already tuned to the RW sound, but I think the quality of IR capture and of course what we're putting into them modeling wise have improved immensely. I wish the guys at RW, which were awesome to work with, would try their hand at some new updates, I bet they could give some of these guys are run for their money.
Right now I dig on the Ownhammer stuff which used to sound thin compared to RW to my ears.