"Still, maybe GloriaJ shouldn't send me a CD for review. I never pan or carp so my reviews would bore her to tears. "

   Well,obviously the one exception to enjoying a real stinker of a review is if it was of my own work!I'm quite happy to send you a cd - and you can be as bland as you like.
As Phil says, it's all very subjective.And can you ever separate the content from the process? I, like most people, focus on the content.Sometimes a really bad recording would deny me enjoying that - but even then,its not usually to do with mikes and rooms etc.I get lots of cds given to me - some for review,some in exchange.I dont hear many that are spoilt by bad recording - its the singing and musicianship - and most important of all, the material itself, that stops me playing them more than once.
When I did my first recordings,in proper studios, I found it hard to play well because they were always so acoustically dead.Engineers prefer this, because they can add reverb but cant take it away.Maybe times have changed.I have also recorded in church spaces etc where it is very reverberant - but perhaps the bedroom is the best place really.The drawback,as I said before, is that software reverbs arent always very good, and I think reverb is difficult to use well, if you dont have the experience.