What am I missing?

Some of the songs are really awful, but that's ok.  It's part of the charm.  I'd rather hear something new and fun, than songs I've already heard a million times.

@mirolab Heh heh, and totally agree the ability to hear worlds of new music has been a reawakening for me as a music-loving audiophile.  I’ve also had success using the Shazam app on my iPhone to identify new music when I hear something interesting in my car.  What a great time to be an audiophile, eh?

Don't mean to drag this out, but I think maybe you don't understand what remastering is.  It has nothing to do with bitrate.

@mirolab You may well be right, but I’m willing to learn and would love to hear your thoughts.  It’s hard for me to imagine anyone would bother to remaster existing 16/44.1 recordings.  Why would anyone take the time/$$$ to do that?

I do want to try Qobuz, as I really dislike Tidal's interface and music suggestions.  They don't seem to tune into my preferences, and push modern rap & R&B music, which I don't like.

Totally with you on that.  I switched from Tidal to Qobuz, as many others here have done, and would never consider going back.  I’d really like to hear your thoughts on Qobuz content quality if/when you give it a try.  Hell, it’s free and you don’t seem to be a big fan of Tidal either, so why not?

@mirolab Everything has absolutely not been remastered — that’s ridiculous.  Switch to Qobuz. My DAC says everything is 16/44.1 or better, and my streaming now sounds better than spinning discs. Tidal sucks as does their absurd and total BS MQA algorithm. It needs to die.  Feed that into your Audio Workstation. 

Nearly everything on streamers has been remastered to be very loud and compressed

@mirolab That’s just not true.  Sites like Qobuz and Tidal exist to stream content in full CD 16/44.1 resolution.  And a lot of music is available in hi-res that you can’t get at all on a traditional CD.  You seem to be referring to highly compressed MP3 streaming that really has no place being discussed on this site because it sucks and nobody serious about audio would listen to it critically.

@retiredfarmer There's also a huge difference between a $5000 and $20,000 streaming system.  @ghdprentice can tell you all about that.  

If "cd quality" continues to be a quality standard by which we judge streaming services -which it appears to be- why exactly do we hold cds in such disfavor? I understand the convenience and storage issues with cds but I also understand that with streaming you will never own the music which you do with cds. 

CD quality is not “the standard” by which we judge streaming, and CDs are less and less held in disfavor as both recording and CD player/DAC technology have continued to improve.  IMO, CD quality is more used to denote that the streamed music is at CD resolution (or better) and not a lowly compressed format like MP3.  And with streaming you have the ability to buy any track or album by downloading it and thus own it if you wish.  Also, what I pay for Qobuz each month is about the same price as buying one new CD or a couple used ones, and for that I have access to tons of music I’d never otherwise have heard, which is the most exciting thing to anyone who loves experiencing new music and doesn’t wanna just spin the same stuff over and over.  Also, a lot of streamed music, and especially new music, is available in hi-res, which you can’t get at all with standard CDs.  Last, my streamed music now sounds as good or better than spinning discs, and since 90% of all my CDs are available to stream I rarely play a CD anymore.  In fact, the more I enjoy all the benefits afforded by streaming, getting off my butt to find and load a single CD just seems more and more limiting and ridiculous.  Just my thoughts/experience FWIW.