I get you with escalation haha.
I think one way that I counter this is by working with a group of tracks I call 'production groups'. Just for very broad strokes, like Percussion, Instruments, Vocals, Synths, Effects etc.
Though it's a bit of work to set up, the template system in REAPER means you can use it and edit to your liking very easily. That can often help a lot with organization, so I can turn down large amounts of tracks while still taking care that I'm hitting compressors and such properly.
REAPER is honestly a blessing for these huge and complex projects.
But yeah, when people do mastering work it's very common to just trim the signal. The -6dB headroom before mastering doesn't really matter anymore, but by the same token, trying our best to respect it can make life easier.
Rock on!
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