excellent post mate, completly agree you...
having been 'educated' to deck wizards like you explain, Picotto, Sasha, Digweed, dave seaman, etc, etc... going to psy events and hearing astrix using reverbs to drown previous songs so he can start his shit, is like WTF happend to beatmatching
At some point someone should be able to mix these two together. And that is where progressive falls for me, in the minimal aspects that rely a lot on a steady but strong and polished groove at the same time using (but not abusing) peaks and other tools to get the crowd moving.
I enjoy them both now and again, depends on what im feeling like having that night...