When people see them live, they hear the studio work in their heads, not the actual performance.
Which always sucked.
I saw them live and was sorely disappointed. And it was when John Bonham was alive.
Zeppelin songs took on another dimension live- and it was better than the original vinyl version.
It wasn’t like Queen or many other bands where studio overdubbing of vocals and guitars made it impossible to recreate on stage. Kashmir, Achilles Last Stand, The Song Remains the Same, etc were so much more powerful live on stage than on vinyl- and they were great on vinyl...
Like I said I never saw a LZ concert that didn’t suck until I watched that “Celebration Day” link I posted.
Whereas The Who’s live versions tended to blow away the studio versions, especially the songs from Tommy.