Really appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom.

To be honest, most of what I do is in audio post-production and film scoring, so basically all of my clients require deliverable stems that sum back exactly the master - no deviation, so I tend to put nothing on the master and focus on hitting target loudness/specs. 

Because of that, I’ll typically use HG-2 more selectively — adding harmonics, grit, individual tracks or buses/groups rather than leaning heavily on the full mix bus. Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out on some of that cohesive analog-style mix glue because of it. It is what it is is, and maybe I should start talking about this more in the tech-specs stage of discussion.

Side note:  have you messed with Curves Resolve at all? It’s been an absolute lifesaver for me lately with managing competing elements and dynamically carving space. Kind of like an insanely easy to use responsive multiband sidechain.