I agree that it’s a multiuser device but you use neither the headset nor the car while listening on headphones, and neither mouse nor keyboard requires any comparable bandwidth. The codec AptX is designed to be adaptive, why not make the top end lossless from the start? However, it looks like, and as you said, “better audio was not priority”. Even though the market was full of higher and higher quality wireless headphones and speakers and every Hi-Fi magazine was full of reviews.
It looks like Qualcomm had been sleeping. A very typical behaviour when you own the market.
This is because right from the start, bluetooth was not designed for audio streaming purpose. Its designed as a very low power and short range personal area network. One main goal is to allow wireless communication between mobile phone and computer.
Data compression is one of the most common method and effective method to achieve higher throughput.
Btw, there is no real demand for CD quality because most of the users are playing MP3.