You're right in the "this is one more tool in the belt" sense but there are modelers like the Kemper and Fractal already out there that make your guitar sound like... anyone... and they are really convincing. I'd argue this is almost a solved problem. Still cool, nonetheless.
Building the model is not solved though. Kemper sort of does that by not sure what, but an approach that simply measures the effect and creates a complete model in hours would radically change the industry. Companies like Yamaha (line6) would be able to add hundreds of simulations in months instead of a couple.
There's an Italian company already doing something like that for offboard gear: Acustica Audio. But they're using convolution instead of neural networks. It's instant instead of taking hours.
An acquaintance that builds boutique studio gear had some of his creation modeled by them, and we were quite impressed.
That isn't reasonable. There are too many variables beyond the effect, like room, fingers, guitar, and amp. Without the knobs, you haven't delivered the effect.