Pop music, in general, messes with perspectives and balances deliberately. I'm thinking of a recent Analog Planet post. There were two different LP remasterings of Carol King's "Tapestry", Mikey posted needledrops of the two with a poll for preference. I went to YouTube to compare to the official streamed version. It sounded better than either of the two (very similar) needledrops [bass summed to mono, reduced bass levels, more distortion] but that's not the point. This very popular album is an example of standard, non-audiophile pop production that has been ubiquitous for a very long time: up close and top of the mix for a voice that requires amplification anyway, every instrument mic-ed in mono and pan-potted into position, most instruments with close mic-ing that destroys perspective, every element compressed into place. That sort of production is not concerned with how the recording sounds played back over the best equipment---it's a lot more concerned with how the recording will sound on the worst equipment, like a car radio. That's because the producers of this album were aiming for a hit, so they worked at coming up with a sound that would grab people's ears if they overheard the song on the radio. And that's SOP for pop and that's why so much pop has crappy sounding production. This is not something recent, something we can blame on "Digital", but the way things are for the most popular music and have been all the way back to the beginning of commercial recording.
The best modern pop production creates soundscapes that would otherwise be impossible and are their own reward. As regards the audiophile concept of the "pure" recording with minimal microphones---like ORTF or coincident miking---that can be a fun illusion on good playback gear and is somewhat closer to "reality", but ultimately the coloration of the microphone and the pick-up pattern of the microphone guarantee that the resultant sound will be a distant cousin to the real thing. In any case, that sort of production applies to genres of music that will not sell in massive quantities, chamber music of various sorts, some Jazz, some folk.