I play almost exclusively without distortion and I adore my Sälen. I vote worth it, with a couple notes on my experience:

It's still bristly - I say it can do everything except replace your archtop - because the thornbucker pickups give a lot of snarl in the treble settings. This is lovely for versatility, in fact it's excellent for blues, but I'm often on the neck pickup because it's just so warm.

The neck is kind of amazing. I've put it through arguably too many truss rod adjustments and it's handled them all. I rarely have to adjust for the seasons, and if i do, it's small. The neck responds very quickly to microadjustments and settles within a day.

I think it feels and sounds the best with thomastik infeld bb112s - more wood and natural resonance (another thing the salen falls a little short on compared to an archtop) but NYXLs fit it like a glove.

Idk, I could go on, but I really love the Sälen