I can only speak for what i heard during the Zildjian day last year, where Mike played The Enemy Inside. And holy shit, it was such a difference in sound, way more powerful and organic.
What i think might have an impact on the sound, besides compression and guitar stealing away cymbal frequencies, is the way his kit is captured by microphones. It's a very unusual kit, and maybe there is a problem with leakage between microphones, so they use compression (and triggering at some cases) to fight that.