idiomssemantics
I've heard people using this idiom, such as "each day is better than the next", or "you hope that each experience you have is better than the next" (heard this one on a TV show not long ago), apparently in a positive way.
However, if taken literally, I find the meaning very negative – if the current thing is better than the next, then the next thing must be worse, so things would just keep getting worse and worse. How do you explain this phrase/idiom?
I would call it adaptation:
[MASS NOUN]
1 The action or process of adapting or being adapted:
oxforddictionaries.com
Eskimos might prefer an adaptation to igloo sweet igloo.
Assume "on the nose" means perfect - a positive connotation, as you've stated.
Too "on the nose" means too perfect. Which, as you've noted, connotes a negative.
Take a subjective matter such as painting. If you're going for freedom, expression of movement, light, etc., rendering something in too much detail can ruin the effect, in essence, the rendering is too perfect and therefore lifeless or absent of movement or subtlety.
An example of this is found in the later paintings of JMW Turner, e.g. Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway:
Here, a lot of detail ("perfect" rendering) would have ruined the evocative effect of the painting.
Best Answer
You're absolutely right.
A quick google suggests that this is a commonly misquoted phrase.
The phrase should be 'Each day is better than the last'.