There is no substitute for cubic inch or in this case surface area

@andy2 ​​​​@ronboco 

Modern, long throw woofer designed have significantly advanced so there is very little measurable distortion. The technology has advanced to produce drivers with accurate pistonic diaphragm movement reducing breakup effects.  Rigid diaphragm materials also prevent breakup effects.  I recommend reading reviews on Vivid and Vandersteen  speakers  and peer reviewed literature on the benefits of their IP on this subject.  What you state was correct 20 years ago, may be correct today for improperly designed speakers today, but is incorrect for well designed speakers form audiophile companies on the market now.  I see the woofer excursion on my Vivids vividly and the distortion rating is <0.5% second and third harmonic over frequency range.  

Advancements in woofer and cabinet technology no longer require large diaphragm elements to produce accurate bass response capable of properly loading a room and producing the benefit of enhancing soundstage you seek.  The effect on soundstage is related to the accuracy of the low and mid bass, and the woofer’s ability to move enough air in correlation to room size to create  the effect.   For example, my speakers are known for the fast, articulate, and dynamic bass response with two vent loaded 5.5” woofers.  These woofers are a rigid, long throw diaphragm design that move large volumes of air even though they are small diameter drivers.  25Hz test tones are audible (a little over 3db down); however, there is a steep roll off after that and 20Hz test tones are not audible to my old ears.  This level of response is amazing from such small drivers.  In fact, multiple smaller woofer speaker designs have the advantage of wider dispersion and less beaming than older large diaphragm woofers, enhancing the soundstage better. Therefore, it is not necessary to have a large diaphragm woofer to get deep, accurate response that enhances soundstage.  

The technological advances include, but are not limited to:

1. New magnetic materials with higher field strength (higher Tesla rating). 
2. New magnetic designs (for example, my speakers use a ring magnet structure) that are more accurate and more efficient transducers of electrical to mechanical energy.
3. Long throw armature designs moving as much air as a larger diaphragm, short throw design. 
4. More rigid diagram materials and computer assisted design with less break-up effects resulting in lower distortion. 

These advances permit the design of small size woofers that have the advantages of lower distortion, speed, dispersion and accuracy while moving significant quantities of air compared to older large diaphragm designs.  Within a given brand, woofer size increases with larger, more expensive models that are usually designed for more voluminous rooms in order to correlate the volume of air moved by the speaker with room volume.