These days? Small speakers have been good for many, many decades. Nothing new or amazing "these days". Amazing for their size, but that's it- no substitute for full range, large drivers and proper midranges. Real audiophiles never p#ssed around with little speakers pretending they were anything other than a massive compromise. Nobody bought a small two way as an end-game speaker.
People were realistic and not duped by group-think like they are so often "these days". Look at the Pioneer Andrew Jones hype train- they are an utterly dreadful speaker, no two ways about it. Even for a toy speaker, they are shocking.
Single small speaker in a room demonstrations playing audiophile essential wimpering female "singers" or some "unplugged" acoustic garbage, enable mutton dressed up as lamb to be sold to the gullible. Put them side by side with the real speakers and it all falls apart very quickly.
Active speakers have been around for many decades, as has motional feedback and DSP. It has evolved now to the point where you can get a whole lot of tech shoved in shoe box that sounds good for the money. That's a good thing, but having grown men fawn on a forum over "toy"* speakers is a bit like arguing about which VW Polo goes the fastest to 60mph on a V8 performance car chat site.
*I agree with Pavel and his designation of toy speakers. I may have used it myself on a number of occasions. Henceforth, I propose any 2-way speaker with a single mid-bass driver smaller than 6.5" should be classified as a "toy" speaker.