i've wondered about this too, but my gut feeling as that even if joe schmo isn't consciously judging the production value and/or doesn't know how to articulate their impressions of the production value, it still makes an impression on him at a subconscious level. not only that, but distortion is tiring to the ear, and by the time you get to the end of an hour long cd the difference between good production and bad will be amplified, so to speak. the bad production will sound worse and worse as it goes on, even if all the tracks are at the same level of quality, while the well produced cd will sound good from start to finish.