1) If the music is a painting, the sound engineer is the painter, and we the end user is the 'paint lover'.
2) For sure, the painting will be not as natural as the orignal. Example you will never get the same 'picture' of the realworld scenery.
3) The painter will use his/her creativity to make sure the end user will love the painting, by adding some colors, touch-up, use different brushes, canvas, .... Everything that can make the painting acceptable by the end-user
4) The end-user will buy the well painted painting. Similar to a good recording studio with a very good performance.
5) Now, as painting lover POV's. He/She also want to appreciate the painting more, by put at BEST location in his/her house or gallery. What if he/she put it at the garage or near the trash cans?
Now, yes, you can do EQ as you like, because I said previously, your equipments, your ears. EQ is just one of the tools for sound engineers. The are many type of effectors, such as de-esser, exciter, compressor, dynamic expander, compander, noise reducer, BBE, sub-harmonic generator, delay, reverb, phase shifter, pitch shifter, vocoder, ..... wow ...
too many. Yes sound engineers do have many tools which alters sound. If they can use it wisely, their recording will be very good, or otherwise
.
Now, it is up to the end-user how they want to listen it. Some like it more bass, some like it more treble and others. Some like it to play with vaccum tube amps or electrostatic speakers. Some listened to it through cheap AM radio, and don't bother anything
. Some like to add something to the recording, such as eq, reverb and echo effects to make them more appreciate the recording.
Now, I do appreciate what the sound engineer do. The had done their great work to preserve the great performance for us, the end user.
So, in this topic, I don't have to use EQ, because, I already can appreciate the recording, by having a good playback environment. Also my brain also can do minor adjustment
Thank you.