everything he is saying to me sounds like a people problem, not a gear problem. you have access to in theory endless amps, speakers, mics you can move around, boosts and whatever else that is he said is 97% there using modern modeling.. that to me sounds like a heaven for experimenting, not a problem. if a dude goes in and is content with a preset and dosent choose to try anything different, keeps everything the same song after song, and the band or engineer give no pushback and go along with it, than thats on them, not the gear. it seems like we've been complaining about stale recordings for 20 years now, yet nothing ever seems to change, at least not in the metal world, and i really dont understand it. i never allowed myself to learn to edit drums or use samples, and i record all my guitars one take so what you are hearing is basically a live song, i dont remember the last time i heard a band say "yeah we told the engineer overheads, kick and snare mics only on the drums and we record all the guitars one shot to keep a lively feel..", if i can do it, so can big bands, but they seem to choose not to