I’m not sure I agree with this part of your argument. As a fan of the Western genre I appreciate that one of my cable channels just had a marathon of 70 year Randolf Scott movies. And Audie Murphy from the same era shows up pretty regularly as well.
Focal Utopia 2022. Bought them recently when they had their $1,000 off sale. I’m glad I didn’t know how much I was going to like them or I’d have paid full price sooner.
They don’t as I’m sure you know. The Editors Choice list is broken into several different price ranges which includes among other things Editor Choice speakers under $1K.
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/editors-choice-speakers-under-1000
I’m not quite sure how to interpret this. I might purchase something based on how it measures but whether it sounds good to me is more important than any measurement. If it didn’t sound good how would I enjoy listening to the music it reproduced?
I bought a brand new Pioneer BDP-80 on EBay for $200. Cheaper if you buy used. I still buy SACD’s but rip them as soon as I get them. End up with a native DSD 64 file.