I'm aware of the general preference for neutral speakers - even sighted that generally seems to be my preference vs wildly colored speakers - and I've said here numerous times that as a matter of probability I should expect I would pick more neutral over seriously colored speakers in blind speaker tests.
It still doesn't tell me
exactly which speakers I would prefer.
Also, as I've said before, while we know of the type of discrepancies that occur in testing sighted and blinded for speakers, the specific blind listening tests don't seem to directly translate in to choices in sighted listening tests, nor in to predicting long term owner satisfaction (at least I'm unaware of any such studies showing this). It's certainly true that when you control all other variables, on sound alone you can get a high level of predictability as to what most people will like
under the specific conditions of the tests in question. And that's powerful information. But since sighted conditions can actually influence our perception, I don't find it unreasonable for me to allow such factors in my decisions.
So, for instance, I auditioned a few Revel speakers at length (in set ups where they were well set up and didn't suffer any obvious deficiences from room interaction), and found they were quite competent sounding, but I just wasn't that thrilled by them. Whereas I found myself riveted from the get go playing my tracks through Joseph Audio speakers. Did I actually only like the sound of the JA speakers better or was some bias or other effects I wasn't aware of contributing? Certainly bias effects were quite possible. But in my case I chose to spend my hard earned cash on the speakers that I knew thrilled me under the conditions in which I'd actually use them, vs buying the ones that didn't thrill me but "I may likely have chosen under blind conditions." And I've been thrilled with my choice to say the least.
I can understand someone else making a different choice for different reasons, of course. But this is part of what I mean by the science only taking me personally so far in my choices of audio gear.
BTW, while neutrality was generally preferred among speakers, where listener selection is limited to the speakers presented, I'd be more cautious about your leap from those tests to the claim it is effectively universal that people align on neutral sound "because it will produce the most natural vocal/instrumental production."
Once listeners were allowed to start with neutral sound and then adjust sound to their preference, Olive apparently found variations in preferences:
Based on preference, listeners adjusted the relative bass and treble levels of three music programs reproduced through a high quality stereo loudspeaker system equalized to a flat in-room target response. The same task was repeated using a high quality circumaural headphone equalized to match...
www.aes.org
"There were significant variations in the preferred bass and treble levels due to differences in individual taste and listener training."
So, again: nuance, and caution are a good thing when talking science.