tlw
Same familiar sorry tale as CD releases really, with the same problem that the sound engineers can only do what the customer wants and the customer wants LOUD.
Indeed and that was an interesting look into current day audio for film mixing (pretty much what I expected and have perceived based on newer productions). I hadn't considered the surround sound mix consequences though. That's particularly cruddy that they make the assumption most are going to own a system to replicate such things. Does seem pretty simple to have an intern slap a limiter on it, dump it down to stereo and do some level automation... but alas that's film industry I guess.
Despite some of my other idealistic inclinations I am certainly a believer in (responsible) capitalism. It sure does seem to get in the way of quality and common sense sometimes though and has a tendency of accumulating into an inescapable cycle of suck (like the loudness wars).
The hyper critical layman consumer angle doesn't help either. Back when I was running retail type setups the motto actually became "The customer is always WRONG!"... at least until they were right. It put off some people and perhaps lost some sales but all in all it resulted in better, regular customers (who could actually pay) and less shrinkage/lost man hours due to unreasonable demands.
I guess that kind of ties into the premise of this thread. If I ever become skilled enough to become a commercial producer I'd like to think I'd be able to accomodate whatever a client wants/needs but I could definitely see myself not completely bending over for outright silliness.
IME anyone who makes those types of demands in life are generally more hassle than it's worth dealing with anyway... and from some of the stories I've read here and elsewhere that seems to hold true (if not more so) in the music production biz.
A real artist/musician though generally will have a good sound in their head that deserves to be reproduced accurately. Helping them get there would, to me, be a joyful experience.