I'm the first person to agree that savvy marketing and the canny wooing of the right review journals can have an enormous and sometimes deleterious effect on consumer choice; that people more often than not want what they're told to want whether it's good for them or not. But in this case I think you have to be a bit realistic.
We--by which I mean people on this forum--are a minority who will sometimes go to absurd lengths, both financial and aesthetic, in pursuit of audio perfection. Most people want something that sounds nice and looks good, and the simple fact is that wood looks nice and rectangular shapes tend to fit better into people's living rooms. Here, I think, is a case of manufacturer's giving people what they want, not, as the OP suggests, duping them.
I should, however, declare an interest. My Sonus Faber speakers look fabulous and have just reached the point after about eight months of hitting a perfect and exquisite synergy with the rest of my system; plus my wife thinks they're really pretty--a not inconsequential consideration for those of us who do not possess dedicated listening rooms to which we can retreat!
