****...
I was just thinking this and gonna Post the same question...

I love distortion in all it's many forms...

But it is definately true that some clean and clinical tunes can sound huge as **** and have more power than something distorted.

Bit of both though I reckon - either lay doen a bed of warm distorted sound and have a couple of clean standout sounds, or a clean tight backdrop with a couple of filthy standout sounds.

Distortion can be hard to sit in a mix too - took a load off a sound in one of my tunes the other day and suddenly fitted in the mix.