I think you're confusing one off board mixes at the end of the night with an actual rough mix that captures the vision of the producer and the recording engineer at the point where all of the elements of the production are in place and ready to go to a mixer. Some of those are quite good, and I've had some of mine make it to the record.
I've never heard of a case where the Mixer fell in love with the rough mix and didn't "bother remixing it". That doesn't happen. MIxers have pretty good sized egos and generally like what they do. They have also proved themselves and almost always bring something cool to the party. Clive Davis may go back to a rough, but a mixer never would.
There was a time when it was standard practice to pull all of the effects and automation off a pro tools session before turning it over to the mixer. Those days are long gone. I think most mixers prefer to get the whole session with all of the BG voc blends and balances in place, or bounced as a stereo file. No body wants to get a session with 40 BGs at unity gain and start from there! It's a waste of time since that work has already been done. We want to start where you left off, and make it better.
Steve
