Does working IB through a recession make you a better banker on the premise the weak are weeded out and the strong remain? Or is it better to be a banker (with regard to experience) during an economic boom when more deals are getting done on the premise you'll see more transactions get completed?
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Much better to be banking during the boom than the bust. Have a friend from a satellite office, who was an analyst at BofA leveraged finance during 2001-2003 (back then, they combined LevFin and restructuring because times were so bad). Despite being a brilliant guy and having two degrees in hard sciences as an undergrad, he confided in me that one of his biggest insecurities as an analyst was technical ability due to lack of deal flow at the bank. There's no experience that compares to actually doing deals. You work harder, longer hours, forcing you to be more efficient and accurate - on top of learning the process and going through all the details of the transaction itself.
While I would tend to agree with LloydChristmas, there are some benefits to banking during a downturn. You certainly encounter far more issues, but these can be viewed as a learning experience. During a boom you may just accept things at face value ("Private Equity Firms obtain financing, yay!"), but during the bust these topics become important and discussed in far great detail.
Overall, the best experience will come from the number of deal iterations you do, which will be highest during a boom.
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