Yeah man. Man has a tendency to take what he learns to the extreme, every time, just to see how far he can push things, but even though the results are pretty maximal, they're not necessarily better, and loudness is definitely one of things that impressed producers to a great extent and made many crave for it, but they also failed to see that loud does not equal good, so the sound quality got sacrificed in the process. It's like extreme bodybuilding: ppl see how far they can take it because they're obsessed with it.
I'm not into naming names, but take any contemporary song that's been pushed to the max, play it on a PA, and then play some old jungle after that (don't do level-matching by watching the meters because the old stuff isn't as squashed – do it by ear), and you'll realize how much fatter and nicer the old shit sounds. If you leave the muscle-flexing aside and only judge by ear, older stuff wins in many respects.
Sure, if you play some über-loud Nöisiä tracks first, then play some older shit and don't touch the gain, the older stuff sounds weaker because it's quieter, but if you bring it up....boom.