As another old guy, perhaps I can throw some light on this.

Back in the day, we used to track everything to tape through a compressor because it was the only way to get a decent signal to noise ratio. If you compressed the recorded signal afterwards, it compressed the tape hiss as well and brought up the noise floor. We made system work, but occasionally an inexperienced engineer would ruin a good take by using the wrong compressor setting.

With digital, the noise floor is so low that it's quite possible to track without a compressor in most cases and then compress or upward limit afterwards. The result is pretty much the same, but the engineer gets to experiment more.

The importance of good principles when tracking cannot be over-emphasized. If something is recorded badly it won't mix well and mastering will not improve it either.

ROG.