Appreciate the sentiment and can relate to your statement/question.
My 2-channel journey took me all the way around to the most enjoyable system I've ever experienced. And when you say "Big Fish", let me shock you with minimal system components - both of them (if you count active speakers):
1) Old Samsung Note 9 (with a broken screen) sitting on a continuousely charging DeX cradle that also has HDMI and USB outputs and a dongle that strips (S/PDIF coax) audio off the HDMI output. <-- Yes, that is the extent of the "gear".
2) Speaker system: Pair of DIY Linkwitz LXmini and pair of DIY Linkwitz Phoenix(alt) open-baffle subs with a Hypex FA123 mounted in each. These receive the digital signal with their coax inputs, provide crossover and DSP tuning duties - driving all 6 channels actively.
The HDMI is connected to a TV for displaying/selecting streaming sources, Note9 is controlled with wireless keyboard/trackpad. Turn the system on by switching on the TV, phone automatically awakens in DeX-mode by default. Soon as I begin playing something (usually AmazonMusic or YouTubeMusic), the Hypex amps signal-sense and auto powerup - all from the couch. Another beauty of the system is... there is only ONE digital-to-analog conversion, and it's at the very last stage - just before amplification (avoiding analog-to-digital conversions altogether and avoiding multiple digital-to-analog conversions) and literally in the speakers.
I've been through so much gear, so many speakers, cal mic measurements with REW, Dirac, etc. (all a great hobby experience and learned a lot) - years of that to end-up here... thoroughly enjoying the "non-system" that I built from the plans of a genius (Linkwitz).
BTW, I still have most of the gear (stacked in the basement) and some of the speakers (GoldenEar Triton One's were repurposed to HT as an example), and if I thought it would improve the 2-ch sound, would readily reinsert - but experience and measurements have shown it won't/doesn't. Also, the 2-ch room has no treatments... unecessary with OB-subs and omni/dipole cardioid speakers.
The system is essentially non-existant except for speakers, powers-up without touching a unit or warm-up time, videos or not (as wished), and excellent spacial sound without a bad seat in the room - I even moved the sweat-spot Eames chair & ottoman to the granddaughter's room (for when she visits).
