I also feel this a lot and it is a real shame.
Mind you, I don't use the compressor in any tones at all other than the most clean ones and even in these I only use a very small compressor ratio.
I managed to get a very nice Marshall crunch tone out of my MP2 but in order for it not to sound too harsh I had to back up (scoop) the mids a little more than I'd wished, hence I felt it made it sound a little more unnatural and processed.
For sake of comparison, I once plugged it so as to drive one side of one of my stereo power amps while simultaneously driving the other side with my Hughes & Kettner (HK) Access Midi Tube Preamp (my main preamp in one of my rigs). I'd play one side while the other was in standby mode, then switched them over and so on and so forth.
I was frankly surprised as to how close I'd gotten the MP2 to my main "Marshall JCM800 / Jubilee crunch" patch of the HK Access, specially given that I'd programmed the MP2 with a different rig / setting, in a different time and away from the HK Access. It just showed to me that if you put the time, the MP2 can take you there (and also that I seem to have my preferred tones pretty much permanently printed in my brain).
However, in all honesty, while the base tone of a full-blasting power chord was almost the same between the two, it is true that the HK sounded more open and, above all, reacted much more dynamically.
So, you don't need the tone to be compressed at all to get the same level of overdrive, the HK Access was just as overdriven and powerful as the MP2 but responded marvelously to pick attack, guitar volume and playing nuances and cut through better.
This, I feel, is one aspect the ADA engineers unfortunately underestimated, because otherwise the MP2 is a really fantastic preamp.
And I think this has nothing to do with available technology because I think the HK Access is even older than the MP2.
Probably, just a matter of engineering decisions trying to achieve an intended specific sound (you can guess this by the MP2's presets, which I am not fond at all. Way too processed sounding, indeed, for me and my tastes, at least.)
While I managed to get very good clean tones (specially for 80's pop / funk playing a la David Williams / Nile Rodgers and other studio session cats), and a very convincing Marshall JCM 800 / Jubilee (my main recording amp) tone out of the MP2, it's been quite a struggle to get a semi-clean, semi-distorted tone that I find satisfying.
I've tried many voicings and achieved some good sounding base tones but the problem ends up always being the same - dynamics.
The lack of dynamics is a particularly grave matter when wanting to play in these registers, think Stevie Ray Vaughan and the way his tone and overdrive changes when he digs in.
So, even when I get a nice edgy overdriven clean-ish base tone (how to describe such thing?), it sounds a little bit flat and static because it seems to stay the same, no matter how I approach the guitar.
For synth connoisseurs, I'd say it is a little bit as an old rompler sounds, much more predictable and "fake" sounding, compared to a true analog synth, which exude moving sounds.
Think also the machine gunning effect in some electronic drum sets, if you know what I mean.
I have yet to put some more time into my MP2's and work some of the voicings more in depth (some of them I barely touched because I did not like their tone characteristics right from the start).
But is there anything we could do to radically "open up" the MP2 and make it more lively? Paleeaase?