I agree with tracking in the right range. If you do that you won't need any gain adjustments further down the line.

Where adjusting a tracks overall rms level comes into play for me anyway is when I get a session tracked by someone else. And some of the tracks are sitting down at say -30 dB rms and yes they can be that low. They are impossible to mix and you will just never have enough usable level at your disposal. In that situation I would add some level in an editor and bring that up to the ref level I am working at. (I like -14 too as a ref level. It creates an automatic -14 rms master) And when you do this, yes you may be raising the digital noise floor but it still works very well and the increased digital noise floor will still remain mostly inaudible.

Other tracks are sometimes super loud in sessions like this too e.g. sitting at -8 or -6 dB rms. I tend to just grab the event gain handles and pull them down to match the ref level I am working at in those cases. The waveform heights will also reflect this.

Virtual instrument levels can be all over the place too. From super quiet to smashing loud. Not a bad idea to pop a meter straight after and monitor their levels. Use their output level controls to also get the ref level before rendering. Saves time later on too.