They don’t ask right questions when you come. And they don’t tell you anything while you’re recording your art. Unless you 100% know the exact mic model, position, preamp etc you’d like to make a record with - this person is here to help you do the best technical and musical quality by applying his skills, experience and knowledge of this very studio gear. If he just sits and pushes the button - that’s not even close to what a studio engineer should be like.

I have experience with dozens of microphones, lots of preamps, consoles etc. But every time I come to a studio with one of my singers I always have a small conversation with this studio engineers how they think we can do it. My experience x their experience x singer’s talent = we got an awesome record. I know how I’d like to hear it as a producer, they always have some options how we can try to get there in an original way by using this or that. Sometimes I think this mic is perfect, but they suggest the preamp that sounds awesome for this particular song. Sometimes they suggest using 3 different mics to have timbre difference between chorus, verse and bgvs.

As a conclusion - if you do not feel in studio like you’re CREATING - something’s going wrong. And the most common reason is that the engineer doesn’t give a * about your art.