It sounds extra picky, and yes, people do keep saying it, but it is true. If you have a bunch of sounds and instrument recording, you can free up a lot of headroom from the low end.

Try a little experiment. Download a free mixing practice song (this site has hundreds of great options) and check the meter before you start mixing.

Take note of the loudest peak value. Now add an EQ to every track and high-pass at 20Hz. Below this frequency is sounds we can’t hear.

You may find that when referencing the meters after adding all the high-passes, that there are a good few dB of headroom extra to play with.

Take note of the options, you have shelf and low-cut options and can determine the steepness in many EQ plugins. Some work better than others. Test for each instrument and you might find that different sounds have different needs.