That's not purist; in fact, it's quite the opposite. A real purist wants to hear more of the source material and less of the room.
EVERY room is an equalizer, easily demonstrated by measuring frequency response from the listening position.
People who claim they're "purists" tolerate the peaks & dips that the room is adding to the sound, even though those distortions weren't in the source material.
Real purists undo those peaks & dips, using treatments and room correction/EQ, to restore the sound so that it is closer to the original signal.
Nope, with all due respect I am not sure which side you are arguing for.
My claim is that electronic EQ during recording or playback damages the sound of the original instrument and is only needed if you have deficient recording or playback equipment.
If a violinist plays in a room does s/he have to EQ his violin?
Nope, you treat the room so it doesnt obscure the violins sound.
If you do a purist recording you, again, treat the room so you are recording the violin. If you EQ electronically you have lost the essence of the violin and recorded a tone altered bloated facsimile of the violin.
If your playback equipment is good quality (high-end, and not mass market crap) it plays the recording faithfully and does not have peaks and deficiencies (like mass market crap playback equip).
So, again, you treat your room so your high-end equipment, which is faithfully reproducing what hopefully is a faithful recording, so you can hear the original violin.
The need for EQ means you have lost the original signal and is a facade for crappy equipment which is unable reproduce the original signal/recording faithfully.
There is no electronic EQ, either during recording or playback, that doesn't fundamentally bastardize what is being recorded or played. So there is no purist in electronic EQ.
High-end equipment doesn't come with tone controls for this very reason. If you are faithfully reproducing a faithful recording there is no need for electronic EQ.
You only need room treatments. And, regretably, you need to be able to afford decent high-end equipment.