A little tongue in cheek, but we are pretty much talking about the same thing.
Compression we can all agree is not for masking mastery of an instrument or mastery of playing with others, but even masters can have a helping hand.
Recorded orchestral music will have an element of compression applied to the sound as well as levels before it is released.
If we are talking orchestral music live, yes of course every instrument is not Mic’d up and compressed, but what you have is a piece of musical art where the parts are written for a number of instruments - if you want a heavy string section be it viola, violin, cello etc you have relatively more parts of the instrument you want to bring higher, same across percussion, woodwind, brass. There are of course acoustics of the room and how you play them alongside your music, having performed in the free trade hall in Manchester and then compare it to the new concert hall, with its specialised foundations to allow gentle dampening as teams go back to not affect the sound, all these play a part.
The list is endless, and at its best compression is not noticeable, it’s just done enough to balance the force.
Am I qualified?
Nah, peeps like Si your person, am I an interested audiophile who wants the best balanced sound possible either playing or listening, damn straight