In general, I kind of agree. It's not possible to separately compress constituent stems in a mix. Once they're mixed, the impact that you can have on "loudnes

In general, I kind of agree. It's not possible to separately compress constituent stems in a mix. Once they're mixed, the impact that you can have on "loudness" is restricted to the whole, frequency-separated bands (multi-band compressor), or extracted parts. From an information-theory perspective, the available leeway for control over presentation is restricted once the audio is mixed. However, I'd rather have a simple compressor running on playback than have a whole industry ruin their content.