I suspect it's a bit like satisfiers and dissatisfiers, under Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Production values would be called a "dissatisfier", meaning that there's a minimum level of production values (meaning studio gimmickry such as compression, reverb and EQ) that people expect, and will be dissatisfied if it's not met - but exceeding that standard won't necessarily impress them (i.e. won't satisfy them - other aspects of the track will need to do that), and they probably won't even notice if the minimum standard is exceeded.