Wm,
You are so right about the scarcity of good live rooms.
Working at Abbey Road would quickly spoil you!
Of course 2 was great, but 1 was a bit live as well! And 3 nothing to sneeze at (DSOM).
This is one of the main reasons I came down here to Compass Point. The rooms are absolutely awesome sounding. For instance, just speaking or clapping in the larger of the two might lead one to believe that it was "too reverby;" but once on mic, it is just great sounding.
The concept of the blending is right on as well. That is really one of the important keys to good recording. If it blends well within the room to the players' ears, then it will also be blending well to the microphones.
I've written here about this before, but once again:
A few years back I was recording at Windmill Lane in Dublin, when they were in the old Guinness Brewery property with gigantic thick stone walls everywhere. The studio was beautiful, but they had put so much carpet and absorbers and diffusers everywhere, that it was actually quite dead. They thought I was crazy, but we spent almost a week with load after load of plywood, and several carpenters, covering the walls and floors with wood. By the end of that, it sounded great. I think they ended up redoing it to a more live situation after we finished.
The one thing I HATE is the places ("Somewhere in Nashville" comes to mind) that have a so-so medium-sized main area, and then 20 little individual booths all around "for the players." Everything is compromised.