sad. if that is the case, then I would say that your friend was gyped out of the money he gave to the recording process. but was he happy with the result? maybe the reason why he didn't complain was because he was happy with the outcome? also, if he had an active role in the recording process as far as mixing and recording stuff, maybe he was also responsible for the resulting sound? my point is, yes, you can't generalize because I have worked in a lot of different big studios that cater to small bands as well as big ones like Bruce Springsteen and Linkin Park, and in each case, the resulting sound for the smaller indie bands (local and national) was great - whether or not they used a famous producer and mixer versus the house engineer.
these days, most commercial studios have pretty much the same stuff so even though I've never been to metal works, I am sure they have your basic run of the mill equipment that every studio running a business should have. but some special studios are special like Abbey Road or Experience where they have historic consoles and equipment that were used by very influential album producers in the past. to use those, you would need some very special people to work on your project, and have a very high profile label backing you up because they do not come cheap, even for commercially signed bands.
