No longer did I become fatigued by the (Man made) stereo (Effects) created by the engineers in the studio. I grew to hate following these effects from the left speaker to the right speaker and back again with some recordings. When you attend a live performance be it Rock, Jazz, synphony or whatever, the sound comes at you in mono not stereo
I think this is the key to your preference for mono -- the material you are listening to, and its engineering. The sound of a classical symphony orchestra, or a smaller classical ensemble or soloist, being listened to in a good hall (and unamplified, of course), will be surrounded by a very striking hall ambience. That will be captured to some approximation by a well done stereo recording (especially if it is recorded with a minimal number of microphones, and is subjected to minimal post-processing), but will be mostly lost when you listen in mono mode. The same no doubt holds true for many well-engineered non-classical recordings.
Regards,
-- Al