The date on the article is actually important here. Music recording is MUCH different then it is today, 20 years later. The best you could do for a home record

The date on the article is actually important here. Music recording is MUCH different then it is today, 20 years later. The best you could do for a home recording was a (comparative to today) shitty 4 track cassette recorder. You really needed some training on the equipment to know what you're doing. The resources just wern't there otherwise. The analogy for the worst cases here is more 'I've turned a computer on, so, Mr Torvalds, heres how a kernel is written'. Of course there were a few brilliant producers. There mostly mediocre producers who just got the job done, that you'll never hear about. Only the outliers, the best and worst get remembered.