Completely agree that Deutsche Grammophon was highly regarded back in the day. Herbert von Karajan was fastidious about the sound of his recordings, and the Berliner Philharmoniker under his leadership developed a particularly full sound.
Then DG and the orchestra went their separate ways, with the orchestra establishing its own label and usually recording in their home venue, which has been fully equipped for recording live concerts. This enterprise is branded "The Digital Concert Hall" and includes permanent remote cameras which can be pre-programmed. Outputs include webcasts, Blu-ray video productions, Pure Audio Blu-ray and SACD backed up by CDs.
Other orchestras have followed, one good example being the London Symphony Orchestra with its LSO Live label routinely producing SACDs of live concerts.
Decca is another recording company with famous recording quality which has become something of a bit player, where it sits as a sister company to DG in the Universal Music Group portfolio. Decca has some superb recent recordings on CD but their vinyl equivalents have been marred by unacceptable scratches caused by high-gloss, printed inner linings, at least as delivered to me by Presto.
The DG recording of Mahler 2 mentioned in my original post was a live recording of a big-deal live event - the re-opening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall after a 3-year, A$100-m refit, done mainly to improve the venue's sound quality. The concert was broadcast live on national radio and recorded using 15 cameras for a national TV broadcast. It was also webcast.
So it is disappointing that DG's Australian vinyl pressing has oversized centre holes. My first copy rivalled Decca's worst for dirt. I don't know whether DG or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was responsible for the original recording. It may even have been the Trust, or the Sydney Symphony Orchestra!
It was a special occasion for a special building, and the performance was comparable to Rattle's best.

