Amarone's are made of dried grapes, which have a different flavor. Typical "valpolicella" can be made of the same grapes (several are used) and the "superiors" use some of the remnants of Amarone production.
You'll get different Valpolicella's with different varietals - you are most likely just picking up on the dried/ not dried as your preference.
FWIW as was custom many old-world wines don't label by varietal, that was more of a new world custom that has somewhat been adopted in Europe. Which can cause confusion with some varietal wines being inconsistently labeled e.g. Tempranillo (grape) and Rioja (region). In some cases it doesn't make much sense to label by varietal, e.g Châteauneuf-du-Pape which uses mixtures of many grapes (out of a dozen plus allowed).
In my experience, wine bars are happy to serve flights blind. I usually taste blind, do a reveal and then ask an expert how to describe what I liked (and didn't).
For some regions, e.g. Bourgogne or Châteauneuf-du-Pape, my tastes are expensive. For others, e.g. Italy, I prefer some lower-priced varietals (e.g. Valpolicella) over some higher-priced ones (e.g. Amarone).