Great responses, that's why this place is so good. No one really flamed that outrageous statement and realized that i was examining a concept.
I think the mix does get designed in from the beginning of every project. There is an idea of how it should all combine from the recording of the first take.
Those oldies had to be a lot of organic formation of the mix as the project would come together. There was no fixing later even available as an option, so if something was buried without planning it, it stayed that way and then later someone said, " I just love how the crash kinda rolls a long in that deeper low midrangey area under the guitar..." or something like that, meanwhile it was bounced so many times, it got muddy and would be considered a mistake if the producer could have a choice in the matter, but then many years go by and people seek it out like, a guy says, "hey, give me that old timey muddy cymbal from 1947 that we 'grew to love' so much over the years that is reminiscent of post war early hits by _______ ." Does any one ever say, "give me that crazy out front tambourine like that Motown hit?"
If I'm painting and I need red, but I use blue since I ran out of red and some art critic says, I just love how he is a genius interpreting the sun, or blood, as blue rather than red, it fits the mood of that painting so well. And then you get a boat load of art students painting blue suns and blue blood for the next 20 years....