Why do I keep torturing myself with remasters?

The majority of reissues these days are sourced from digital or CD where compression rules. You mentioned the remastered Bowie from tape was good. I think you have your answer. This is Michael Fremer's plaint as most companies refuse to indicate the source for the remaster and has urged (pestered) them to do so.

Additionally, most remasters attenuate the bass to appeal to current tastes and also, in the mind of the engineers, correct what was originally minimized due to playback limitations. Most record players couldn't handle strident bass reproduction 50's through 70's as the cartridges available had difficulty in tracking the record. Modern carts can handle it but, I do agree with you that it perhaps is boosted too much in some instances It comes off as tubby, not clean. 

My problem with most remasters is the high incidence of warpage. Very few have not shown signs of this affliction. Some companies are certainly better than others - QRP comes to mind.

Generally, I seek out original pressings as a rule or new remasters that boast as being mastered from the original tapes.

I have highest success rate with Japanese vinyl. I bought it in the 80's because regular vinyl sounded terrible and I am buying only Japanese again for that vintage sound (less compression than on remastered digital) and to catch rare stuff. Japanese quality is consistently the best for vinyl, IMHO.

I agree that the vinyl itself on Japanese pressings is usually far better than records made in most other countries. Quiet, typically well made. (That old JVC compound used by the 'old' MoFi was one of the best!)  I'm not as sanguine about the sonics though- I think you have to compare pressing to pressing. I'm willing to put up with a slightly less quiet surface (not ticks, pops or groove chew, but a little more life in some of the old UK, US or German or Italian pressings along with a higher noise floor). Some of the Japanese pressings are outstanding though, on both fronts (good vinyl quality and good sonics). I got turned on to a 3d press of LZ1 from Japan- not a great recording to begin with, and it is now one of my favorites, along with the US Monarch Piros remaster done in 1974. This, based on a comparison of US and UK firsts, including both Presswell and Monarch, Classic 33 and 45, among many others. Someone here (can't remember if this thread or another) mentioned a particular Japanese pressing of Carole King's Tapestry, a great record that is sonically compromised. I found the specific copy mentioned, and played it last night- to my ears, it  was better than the ORG 45, but was surprised to find that an older 33 Classic sounded better than either. None are truly audiophile quality, but the music is so great, it is worth searching for a good sounding copy. I have been buying certain old Japanese pressings of obscure prog rock albums  b/c the original pressings are  now nutty money. For many of those, I have not had access to the original to make a comparison, but at least the Japanese pressings are high quality, are not from questionable sources and give me the music without spending a banker's ransom on one record. Again, I think it is pretty much record by record, and not a blanket -these are best- proposition. But, I have no issue with your statement, shadorne, re vinyl and pressing quality of the japanese records. 

In the digital world there is no escaping the heavy hand of the modern remastering engineer. Not only do we have to endure the humiliation of classic albums being aggressively compressed but even new CD releases are getting the strangulation technique. The last few releases by the Stones, Dylan, Zeppelin? Compressed, compressed, compressed. As if that isn't enough now a lot of SACDs, Blu Ray, even the SHM Japanese remasters are showing up dead on arrival. Even Hi Res downloads. OMG!

zepplins have straight up sucked .if i play them thru the bose wave in the kitchen there ok :)