I absolutely agree. I make most of my purchases on the internet. It’s pretty easy to determine what you want or need with respect to sources and electronics so great to buy used. Speakers and headphones, on the other hand can vary a lot as can personal preference so it’s hard to know if a speaker choice is the right one for you. That’s when brick and mortar stores came in handy.
For example, I recently bought some well regarded planar headphones. Went to a local shop that specialized in high end headphones, and got to try a lot of different ones. What I ended up buying was different than what I thought I was going to buy before I went to the store based on reviews and forum comments so there you go.
There was a well established audio store 2 blocks from my office. They closed probably 20 years ago when many purchasers of consumer electronics turned their focus to multimedia systems.. I bought quite a bit of equipment from them in the day and they were like friends. Anytime I had some spare time I could drop in, have a cup of coffee, and listen to different components at all price levels just for the fun of it. Sometimes they’d say “ you got to hear what these little speakers can do” and they demo some just for the fun of exploring the hobby and the gear in service of the music at all price levels. I don’t think you see that much anymore. Good times!