I'm like most of the rest of you guys. A stellar performance and stellar-quality music will always out-trump a lesser performance recorded with better fidelity. Luckily, though, I have many, many recordings that demonstrate that Holt's Law doesn't always hold true. I have lots of recordings that give me cake and proverbially allow me to eat it, too.
SQ or performance?
In classical music, how much does the sound quality influence your enjoyment of a particular piece? I find it plays a large part. A recording is an artifact in itself. There are many factors which contribute to the final product. And even a great performance can be sabotaged by poor engineering, poor pressing, poor microphone placement and the like. Conversely, a mediocre performance can be attractive to us because of sterling acoustics.
In “historical” recordings we may allow for bad sound, but in contemporary performances the sound can have a significant bearing on our perspective.
Also, our appreciation of a given performance can be affected by other factors. For example, if we grew up loving a certain version, all others may suffer by comparison in our view.