The answer is genre dependent to some degree, also the size of the band and instrumentation.
The reason the Fender Pbass is ubiquitous throughout it's history is that is middy and woody sounding by its nature with no real top or ultra low bottom. These sonic characteristics allows the pbass to fall into a perfect sonic space in the mix without much effort. What sounds dull and unexciting by itself, works so perfectly in the rhythm section. There is a reason why so many records have been made with this instrument.
Modern sounding basses with extended range often have sparkling high end and deep bass. In some situations this is wonderful but as you get into larger ensembles this extended range becomes problematic.
Anyone that has done any producing and mixing knows that you have to find sonic space for all the instruments. With the bass fidelity extension, you may find the low end is competing with the kick and the sparkly high with keys and brass. This either makes the bass disappear in the mix or obliterates definition of other instruments.
The more instruments in the mix, the better off you will be with a middier bass sound, the exact opposite of the smiley face the op describes.
Again, this is also genre dependent. If you have some favorite recordings, analyze them and study where the bass guitar frequency range is. You may be shocked to realize in professional sounding mixes that space is very often pretty middy.
One of my personal favorite producers is Mutt Lange. Listen to ACDC's Thunder Struck, a killer track. Check out the bass sound, or Def Leppard's Hysteria or any of Shinia Twain's hits. These are some very well produced and great sounding recordings. Dua Lipa's Don't Start Now or Lizzo's About Damn Time for wonderfully recorded Pop Tracks.
R&B tracks like Daft Punk's Get Lucky, Bruno Mars' Leave the Door Open or Modern Jazz recordings by Snarky Puppy which is a very large band. The bass sound is not scooped on any of these recordings because it will not be heard or, it will step on the other instruments. This is true for live performance too.
Marcus Miller or Brian Bromberg are examples players that use a very scooped sound which works so beautifully in their music but is very problematic for other styles and orchestration styles. They are both big time slap style bassists.
Rather than notch the mids, I start by high passing the bass, the exact frequency depends on the room and style of music. Around 40-50hz is where i start rolling off with a 4 string bass, leaving room for some kick drum thump. I often roll down my tone control as well. I use this same approach when producing in the studio. Make your eq evaluation in context of the actual music and instrumentation you are working with. The EQ you like in your bedroom by yourself is probably not a great choice when you start adding other instrumentation.
You may also have noticed that in live situations, in rectangular rooms, you are going to have a low mid/hi bass resonance somewhere between 200-300 Hz, this is something you will also have to attenuate with when trying to achieve a very articulate eq the works in full band mix. A smiley face eq will accentuate the problem.
