As with D-I-Y-ers, painters come in all skill-levels too...

1) Is your ceiling "smooth", or "Popcorn"?
2) How long between coats of the paint?
3) If 2nd coat was, in fact, pretty thick, this would often cause cracking.
4) If some patched areas were primed, and some not...yes you could often see a difference.
5) Did this painter have good references?
>>> Even the best paint on earth can be ruined by bad technique/tools/bad prep.

In a perfect world, if there's a number of patches...prime the whole ceiling.
Give it a week to dry out, then re-assess.
>>> Cracking areas will have to be scraped off, filled, sanded, primed TWICE...then prime the whole thing.

Faron

Muresco is a flat paint. There is really no need to prime the patches when using a flat paint. What can happen is the areas that are primed are now sealed really well while the remainder of the ceiling is not sealed and still porous. Really, it's best to prime the whole ceiling. The cracking paint can come from applying the paint too heavy and from applying the second coat too soon.

Thank you Faron and paintguy...

He is considered a "handyman" but said he had done a lot of painting. That was my first mistake.

He put the second coat of paint on the next day. It was also summer and quite hot out and I can't remember if the A/C was on or not.

What is the general rule of thumb - should you use A/C or not? Of course that may not be such a good question since those that live in hot areas have to have it running all the time.

Should I use BIN primer or is another a better choice? I can imagine the headache of trying to apply BIN to the ceiling.

He primed some water spots(?) with Glidden and they show through worse now than they did before.

You do not need to use BIN. Any high quality acrylic general purpose type primer will do just fine. It's best to use the AC because this will help to ensure your paint does not dry too fast. But if it is a nice day those conditions are usually fine too. You just don't want it to be super humid or hot. For the water spots you should just buy a spray can of Kilz and use it on the spots because those will bleed through latex primers.