See most of the music I grew up listening to was punk, and Paul Simenon, JJ Burrell, Bruce Foxton to name a few really brought bass, especially the Precision to front of the mix. And as said, John Deacon with Queen also had the bass - again a Precision - very up there. Def not inaudible imo, but I suppose it depends on era of music. Those of us who went through the 70s and 80s got some pretty good up front in the mix bass, and more often than not ‘‘twas the humble P-bass.