Are tape machine / console / channel strip / etc emulator plug-ins just snake oil?

I'm recording my band's EP soon, so I've been binging a lot of recording and mixing videos in preparation, and I've found myself listening to a lot of Steve Albini interviews / lectures. He's brought up several times that the idea that using plugin's that simulate the "imperfections of tape or analog gear" are bullshit, because tape recordings should be just as clean as a digital recording (more or less) if they're done correctly. Yet so many other tutorials I'll watch are like, "run a bunch of your tracks through these analog emulations and then bake them in cause harmonic distortion tape saturation compression etc etc".

So like

Am I being gaslit somewhere? Any insight would be appreciated