You get better clean tone with heavier strings. The guitar works more like an acoustic, with better sustain, and you can hear the contribution made by the materials and construction of the guitar. Light strings work best with high gain, heavy distortion settings. They sound 'thin' on clean settings, but that keeps your sound from getting muddy when you're using a lot of gain. Light strings may be less stressful to your fretting hand, but they require a very delicate touch with your picking hand. For me, anything lighter than .011 for the high E feels like spider webs. I started out on acoustic guitars, and I still prefer that kind of response to my touch.