I have a feeling that some people tend to underestimate the masses. Whenever you put out a very cleanly produced (or should I say OVERPRODUCED) album like Paris Hilton's, it is the tidiness of the album that gets subject to criticism.
For me, the magic that the audio engineer chooses NOT to do is just as important as the magic he chooses to do. (Or arguably, what the producer tells him to do). At the end of the day, it is all about knowing the bare minimum requirements of a project, and knowing when you are approaching "manufactured" status.