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I think it's more on the band than him. He just captures their sound, and if their sound isn't great thats exactly what you'll end up with.

I haven’t checked the liner notes, but were Steve Thompson and Mike Barbiero involved in the mixing of TSI?

I don’t care that Mike Clink hasn’t done for other bands what he did for GN’R, but when it comes down to what he did do with GN’R, it sounds fuckin great!

Isn't it interesting that Mike Clink was super successful with GnR and then went on to do nothing of particular importance? I think, if I may make the argument, that Clink isn't as responsible for the fantastic sound we got out of AFD. I have come to believe over the years that it was Thompson and Barbiero's role as mixers that gives that album its dynamic and throaty punch.   Why do I think that? Because if you look at the output of the people involved, it's clear that Steve Thompson especially has gone on to do the best work and his stuff has consistently sounded amazing. Mike Clink? He was hot after AFD. Definitely hot. He was hired by Metallica to do And Justice For All... As much as James Hetfield has liked to shit on Guns N' Roses and bands of that ilk, he seems to put a lot of stock into the quality that producers du jour get. So Metallica hires Clink, presumably to help them capture some amazing sounds in the way he did for GnR. They also line up Thompson and Barbiero to mix the album down the line (as you can see, Lars must have been super into the record). But for reasons that have never adequately been explained, Mike Clink was fired.  Down the line, Motley Crue were trying to come back after their last two comebacks failed. They hired Mike Clink, presumably to help them capture some amazing sounds in the way he did for GnR. Anybody who has heard New Tattoo, or even remembers it, would know it is probably Motley's worst record and the sound on it is pretty disgusting. A band like Motley, which is as close to GnR as you can get in Clink's wheelhouse, got none of that AFD sound on their record. It sounded flat and one-dimensional.   I think Mike did good work on AFD but I think Steve Thompson and Mike Barbiero did better work and it's just a matter of looking at what the people have done on the records since.

Zakk was still with PRIDE&GLORY and the Book of Shadows project at the time, that and the sound on No More Tears would probably be closer, but Zakk wouldnt just come and change the sound of the band, thats not how it works.  But even if he was going to have this kind of influence, as said before, if you take off some distortion and fuzz from the Sonic Brew riffs and just give it some overdrive, you have perfect hard rock n roll riffs that would do great rock n roll songs.  BLS happened years later.