True and helpful observation , I wish everyone who signed up here read this and realised we are not ' hating' on preference.That is the sum of this discussion, I think. One can not address questions of preference universally for all people. One could, likely, characterize what a given person likes AT THE MINUTE. That can change, and often does, for instance when one learns to hear impairments that they previously did not notice.
If someone likes distortion, frequency shaping, time-delay aspects (i.e. phase shift), well, that's their preference, and they are entirely welcome to it. It's rude to judge someone else's preference UNTIL they try to make it universal. And there, in fact, is where the apples hit the cider mill, so to speak.
It applies elsewhere in regards to value judgements.
However I personally have spent time consciously biasing my preference through various assumptions , can be as crude as thinking your listein to room corected sound when that button has not been pushed . Iv read people thinking they are listening to headphones when actually their speakers are on and the phones on their head are off.
The brain is all and assumption rules IME.