As a longtime fan of Robert Heinleins work (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress was the first one I read, and got me hooked), I can’t agree more.
There is a psychological focusing effect, where you listen primarily to the processing you’ve just done and how effective (or not) it was. That leads you away from the other aspects of the mix that would doubtless pop out if you were listening the the same mix for the first time. A quandary, for sure…
All that said, I recently encountered a ‘black magic’ plugin called Goyo, which does a remarkable job of splitting out 3 types of ‘stems’: vocal, reverb, and everything else. I haven’t used it extensively, since I both mix and master my own music; if the mix is deficient, I simply revisit the mix before proceeding. But it might be worth a look. If you try it out let me know what you think of it.