So I get what you're saying, but this isn't my experience.
There's no room to use small changes in volume for expressiveness at the low end of the volume scale, since attacks/sustains/release shape is more quantized. So if your piece has fff and ppp in it (which is probably a full 40dB range) the ppp part will sound super flat while the fff part might sound great.
In a musical mix, -20 dB down, plus "off", is all you need; anything turned down more than about 20 dB relative to everything else disappears.
+/- 20 dB of cut and boost spread into 127 bits is ridiculously good resolution.