Thanks to all for an interesting thread and to the OP especially.
I think we have a situation where sound issues become more important than the music itself. As a tendency - an exaggerated attention to sound. Some of this is OK, but when it takes over, not OK. There is a clear commercial input to make music lovers think that way. Get our component and your problems will be solved.
But it is more than this. I wonder, is there a psychological component too. A background withdrawal from music.
That paradoxically can get larger, the better the system, demanding emotional involvement. There is a 'flee' response. One way to flee is to think about sound. Maybe, often, to avoid the full emotional impact of the music.
I am maybe off on a tangent, here.