Distressed vs traditional buyout PE compensation

Here’s what JS Turnaround on here posted a while ago. More so re turnarounds than distressed but same idea  

“OP, objectively healthy PE is better, easier, more exit ops, more glamorous, less risky and probably pays better. Everyone in the world will pick healthy buyouts except for two groups; (1) candidates who just aren't blue-chip enough to be recruited and (2) quirky weirdos who are somehow turned off by all of that and want a little more jungle warfare in  their life.  

Distressed is absolutely more intellectually stimulating.   Speed helps make it more interesting/stimulating.  Lack of a crowd and lack of a formal selling process make it so much more interesting.  Straight up healthy PE reminds me of an art auction at Sotheby's; Let's all dress up real fancy, drive our Rolls to the auction, overpay for an asset within a highly choreographed sales process and then bake in the warm satisfaction of compliments from my peers for overpaying on such a choice asset.  

I look at special sits (insolvent C&I businesses in my world) as trying to defuse a complicated bomb that everyone is running away from, under the pressure of both time and fear of competition.  Any classically trained MBA in the world would look at these situations and rightfully proclaim that it's too far gone, hope is lost and they will fail to make payroll in 3 weeks.  Every single fact supports that conclusion.  Plus there is all sorts of liability, risk and (quite frankly) shit swirling around the deal.  Any gentleman would quickly run away, shower off at the club and return to the auction house with his chums.  But if you just sit there and stare at the flopping corpse in a shitstorm, and think deeply, solutions start coming to mind.  And if you stare long enough, creatively enough and fast enough, you might see something that no one else has seen - a new method, structure, plan, partnership, angle of attack.  And if you can develop a thesis fast enough you might outpace both the pending insolvency and your competition and walk away with an uncontested great deal.   Well, at least an uncontested great thesis.  2/3 of the fun is turning that crazy thesis into a reality.  And that is way grittier, exhausting and more intuitive that getting the deal in the first place.   Compare that to the soulless thesis of; "We'll buy it at 6X, not fuck anything up and sell it for 9X".  

I'd say personality fit is most important and being honest with yourself about where you'll be most at home.”