A soft attack brings more of that Sax tone out of the amp.
A hard attack pretty much squashes it.
But like you say, when you are trying to cut through a mix, old habits die hard.
I guess the thing I like about my amp is the versatility of it.
It has such a wide range of overdriven tones and along with the other settings, it is easily my favorite amp of all time.
Of course that is after a pound of melted solder and a lot of components!