Am I totally nuts or just a bit off?

If the music is cool mono can sound fine to a point...stereo sounds better though because that is how the world sounds if both of your ears are working, assuming the music was well mixed and recorded. Live music spacial cues are mostly gone from mono. When I mix live (mostly jazz these days) shows you really have to do mono mixes to each side or people sitting nearest a speaker won't get everything, so I add in a small amount of stereo reverb to make it sound more lively and it goes a long way toward tricking the audience into thinking they're having fun.

What I meant is when you mic live musicians (other than orchestras) through a normal PA system you can't mix it in stereo because some audience members are sitting much closer to one side than the other and would wonder why the drummer's high hat was missing and demand a refund and punch me in the face.

Wouldn't ALL classical fans want to hear "musicians in a space?" What are the options? Spaceless orchestras? Orchestras in space? Orchestras revealed in a soundstage that makes them sound like they were playing in a dumpster? I have nothing against dumpsters. Just want that to be clear.