i hear ya, especially about the drums -
the last church i was at used 8 channels/mics (what)
with everything so cramped in & the bleed-over,
4 or 3 would have been more than enough (imho)
i'll admit there is a 'feel' to it when a electric guitarist/bassist has their all-tube,
full-stack rig on the platform & i don't believe there is an electronic kit that quite
emulates the feel of an acoustic set, but in-ears & mic'g a very small tube amp
(behind plexi or off-stage) goes a long way to keep the stage level 'controllable'
the difficult thing is to get the worship team to believe the sound person
when they say 'it sounds good in the house', as they aren't hearing post-EQ
in the monitor mix - avioms or hearbacks (again $) give them control of their mix,
because often times what they think sounds good or how they want it to sound
does not sound the same (i.e. 'good') to the people that are attending service