Just a note on that: I didn't feel the need to use a perfect recording (didn't bother to go in to the studio, recorded them at home) because ultimately most music tracks are far from neutral/perfect recordings. I was looking for a general "overall impression" so a decent recording would do. This mostly arose because I am very sensitive to tone/timbre in terms of what I enjoy in a "higher end" sound system. Starting in the 90's I'd auditioned a gazillion speakers and most sounded off to me in one way or another, like the timbral colors were not matching the ones I carried around in my head - for instance that "warm woody sparkly glow" I perceive from the typical acoustic guitar. On only a few speakers the sound seemed to "click in" to "yes, that sounds right!"
I started to wonder if my memory was just idiosyncratic and untrustworthy in that regard. So I made the recordings and used them to do comparisons with the live sound sources with various speakers I had through my home. And, indeed, the speakers that sounded "right" to my ear previous to doing the comparisons were the ones that survived these comparisons best and sounded more "right" compared to the real thing. Not a scientific study, I'd just close my eyes and listen, but it was good enough for my purposes. I was only trying to please my own perception.
My view is that even the most neutral sounding systems I've heard sound colored, relative to my impressions of "the real thing." If I'm in a drum shop, tapping on all sorts of different cymbals there is this rich range of harmonics and timbral color, of constant "surprise" as it were. But on speaker systems, once I've heard a few tracks with drum cymbals, say some jazz or whatever, the surprise is gone. The system will play cymbals with the "same timbral color" - and I generally know what cymbals will sound like through that system, from then on. IF my perception regarding this is correct, I don't know if this is a limitation with most sound reproduction, or whether (most likely) it's just recordings tend to involve so much coloration/addition/subtraction along the way, the chances of hearing the richness and reality of the real thing, even on a neutral system, are very low. Even the average not-very-good acoustic guitar played in real life tends to have significantly more richness and sonic interest for me than a "better sounding/more expensive" acoustic guitar on a recording through a sound system.
That's why, for me, it's a bit of a "pick your coloration" thing. Relative to the real thing, colored systems have their color, neutral systems sound colored too. So what I seek is any system that at least reminds me of the real thing. And some systems seem to reproduce a sort of timbral warmth that, whether it's a coloration or not, makes more instruments and voices sound more "right" to my ears, than others.
That's my personal answer for "why would anyone want any coloration in their sound system?" It's because I find all sound systems "colored" relative to what I seek. I'm not "seeking coloration/distortion" per se. I'm just going with whatever happens to sound "more right" to my ears, and IF it involves a bit of coloration, I'm ok with that.