let me utter a contrary thought:
after the fact, steve's opinion doesn't make anything, except in that he pays the engineer when done ok, or not if not.
we can train to sit in steve's chair, and of course how to get the (virtual game) gig, but to me the "second guess" is most important.
in the public, no one at all would care for the engineers and the mastering formula.
what we can do here, is evaluate "steve" himself, and give him feedback about the possible results of different attempts on his sound, in the way an innocent listener would do (buy or drop).
I care only for one thing when I listen to all the tracks: would I buy the CD or do I (me myself personally) hate the sound?
when we are acting out our second guess skills, steve can receive kind of marketing statistics about different (potential) flavors of his production.
we have to see the artist's intention (and he will comment so that is clear), and we have to see the customer who will hopefully spend money on the result.
in thankfully taking steve's offer to work with the music and investing time, we are also kind of customers.
--
after reading Ged:
technically, I compare every track with the raw one and my own, and then with others that sound similar. my player allows very quick switching and positioning. I want to be an egotistic listener because everyone spending money is exactly that.
facts are on the table, now we are picky in our own interest.