Who's winning?

Those who enjoy the music no matter source, speakers, etc are winners. 

External judgement, why should you care. Internal judgement, whatever floats your boat, you make up a story in your mind, this your truth, if goals all there is, missing out on much. $30k speaker person is audiophile, this is a journey filled with many ups and downs, learning experiences, soundbar person not on this journey, end of story.

When you frame humanities in terms of winning/losing, you've already lost.

That said, I'll take the speakers for $30k.

Has soundbar guy heard 30k speaker guy’s?

A question not well posed will gave useless answers.

That’s simple.  The person who is happy with what they have is the winner.  My brother for example, is very happy listening to the same music that’s been on his phone for years and listening to it from the 1/4” speakers in his phone.