What could I expect to hear from a Class A amp?

A lot depends on how the amp is designed. The supposed advantage of Class A operation is to eliminate crossover distortion. However, a well designed Class AB amp will not have appreciable crossover distortion. I doubt that reputable manufacturer designs class B amps

I guess that part of my question is if Class A amps hand loads better than those that switch?

My Sugden compared to many other fine A/B amps I've owned is much quicker, open with very solid bass. Vocals and acoustic piano and bass are particularly well delivered.

As mentioned above, it is probably more about overall design and execution than choosing pure Class A vs. Class A/B.

That being said, all my current amps are pure Class A:

Atma-Sphere MA-1 mono blocks, Audio Mirror 45 SET mono blocks, and a couple of different Nelson Pass DIY amps are all pure Class A amps.

What do they all have in common? Very liquid and organic sound that you can listen to for hours and hours (as well as significantly higher electricity bills).

George

Well designed class AB doesn't have crossover distortions because it is removed by negative feedback. There is no THD or IMD but instead hidden TIM distortion. TIM causes odd harmonics (sharp sound) and fatigue (brain fills moments of silence caused by momentary saturation).

Class A doesn't need feedback as deep because of operation on linear characteristic of transistors but also because it needs less of overall gain before output stage.

Unfortunately while class AB consumes, playing music, on average only few percent of maximum rated power the same time class A consumes full rated power.
Efficiency is extremely poor - in order of 12%.

My 2x200W class D amp consumes, during playback at full power about 35W while class A would consume 3200W (even idling).