So why comment at all...? If anything negative is OVER-analyzing, should we simply say, no matter HOW bad a demo is, 'Oh, that's nice!'?

Boring...

BTW, whether your arranger has a 'balance' knob or not (and I feel it should be on every arranger, cheap or TOTL), it still affects the final output. You can't monitor a 'more me' mix while letting the audience get the balanced mix (or the other way round if you need it).

Like I said earlier, probably the MAIN thing I hear in most demos posted here is that the lead instrument is WAY too loud. Obviously, we don't realize it at the time (or we would have not laid it down like that!), we WANT to hear ourselves loud and clear... But that isn't always the best mix for the audience, who need a balanced mix for the best result.