I take your initial point about OVER production is not what is wanted, and that what you get on a CD is not what you get live. But is that not the idea of going into a studio, that it is NOT live and it gives the artist the opportunity to show his creativity with a BIT of production effects and extra musicians etc.

In contrast one act I know recorded a CD as a Demo with almost no production effects and were critised that it sounded like them giving a live performance!
Their peformance on the CD was very good and it was eventualy released for sale.
So what do you do.