I find particularly troubling that blazej confused authority over what the bass should do in the mix with what is basically a preference or expectation of what the bass should do. He obviously has his preferences, exemplified by his cherry picking of artists i think who fit that bill but ignoring the masses of other successful bassists who don't quite fit his description. I personally find my Alembic fits the role in which I like to contribute to the music almost perfectly (I think I prefer active Foderas a hair more). And I never have had any complaints from any musician about my Alembic, including seasoned professionals, particularly from those who agreed with what type of role I wanted to fill. That's why I play Alembic. Because it fits great with the way I like to mix up with the guitars, drums, etc. And I've had no problems hearing the right thing from the mix. When I switch to other types of basses I feel like I have to tiptoe around to avoid getting the wrong types of sound (too boomy, too much bass).
I think that the types of bass roles/styles that blazej is attracted to are, among other things, descendants or relatives to the beatles, led zep, metallica, maybe r&b and blues, etc. Pop rock. And I can definitely can see the advantage of that since it's pretty much the dominant culture, especially in the states. But the goodness totally subjective. But for the way I like to play the music that I play (salsa, latin jazz, jazz fusion, afro fusion) the role of the bass is fundamentally different. These different types of roles I think encourage a preference of one type of bass over the other. That is not to say that salsa bassists don't use passive, but I honestly think their approach is different (how you place notes, fills, articulation, etc).
One good example is that there are some bassists who have a fit exactly in the mix, maybe blending with the drums or guitar approach while others prefer more of a steamroller (which some consider sloppy) approach. Both can be very successful in their own right, and I'm not sure are inherently better in any particular context (ie dance vs jazz vs whatever). I honestly think that these different roles encourage different instrument usage. Not to say that bass playing is limited to these types of descriptions but i think these are at least two contrastable roles.
I might be wary of you as a producer because you might not understand where I'm coming from on the bass. You might see this as a lack of experience on my part but I really think your preference in bass (type of sound reflecting role) is arbitrary. And your derogatory bedroom players makes me think that you're even prejudiced against types of bass playing...
Another thing that's troubling about the active electronics arguments are assuming that the studio mixer has the same access to frequencies as the onboard electronics before it gets converted to the 1/4 inch signal. I'm not expert, but this sounds false. I know that's not true if you have anniversary electronics unless you have a stereo out.
