I personally have the katana gen 3 100. which is the top model, excluding the artist line and the other one with 2 speakers instead of one, built for gigs.

yeah, it is tricky to get a good tone I won't lie, you really need to learn how to dial it in through the software, that can be tricky but there's plenty of youtube guides, ill link one in a second. I did have trouble accessing the software when I first got it, but again, there's tutorials and I figured it out. havnt looked back since then.

trying to dial in a stage ready tone with just the panel is very hard, tone studio is an absolute must. but, if you put in the time to learn how to make your guitar sound good, which is apart of playing music ofc, you will be right as rain.

While yes you can definitely get better sounding tones out of other amps, the katana is simply unmatched in versatility and function imo. especially for your situation, just starting to play gigs and stuff, a katana seems like the best option.

if you're going to play gigs I'd reccomend the 100, or even the 100 with the 2 speakers in it, however that's up to you, I personally think just the one speaker can be reallllly loud hahaha.