Sam,
Yep. Paying for critiques before I moved to Nashville probably saved me around $35,000 and five years of wasted time. The three people I worked with for several months before I moved saved what I would have spent on recording very bad songs done the very wrong way for the very wrong market.
So yeah, a little prevention up front for me, changed everything I did. That came through paid song critiques.Of course that was around 22 years ago. The Music Industry has probably gotten easier since then.

MAB