What I find interesting is that the "problems" which the digital FOH/monitor desks mainly solve are generally related to transport. Digital desks are lighter, smaller, somewhat less fragile, and so on, so it's not a question of audio quality. And since a studio desk isn't likely to be dragged around all over the place, all of that becomes moot. My FIVE was something like $85k new, and that was only around 20-ish years ago, but I got it for $750...which might seem REALLY cheap, but then you need to factor in the need for a rental truck to get it home, gas, time on that, plus some movers to get it out and into your studio because this mo'fo is about 7 1/2 feet long and weighs in at 400 or so pounds. All totalled, that came to about $1200...but that's still FAR under the original list price.
But the search that got me to my FIVE was pretty mindblowing! If I'd felt like it, I could've gotten a 32-frame Mitsubishi/Quad Eight Westar desk for a smidge under $10k...again, that's an insane price, but those are far more difficult to maintain. Or a huge Harrison system that a TV station down in St. Louis was dumping for $9000 that I KNOW ran about $100k when new. The trick is to find something that configures nicely in a studio situation, that's relatively smashproof, easy to maintain, and that has killer audio quality for a good price, and not all desks out there fit that bill...so you have to be careful to make sure the desk in question "likes" being used in the studio. While the FIVE is great for this, not every mixing console out there is suitable for studio work, so that aspect requires some care to make sure the desk's configuration fits well.