1: Powered by a Denon AVR, not separates if you want to "No true cinephile" me.
Am I meant to then override that by increasing the center channel volume so it's louder than the other speakers?
Or raise the system volume?
That and having an industry standard way to crank the center channel (user setting) when downmixing to 2.1
hint - the industry is doing EXACTLY what (most) consumers want. there is a big difference between what a consumer tells you they want, and what actually they pay for
As far as revealed preference goes, those who complimented me on it all had the smallest iPhone available when purchased.
This is anecdotal at best; "those guys" will be using hard data just like tech bros with ecommerce sites do, and the data does not lie.
Compression sells better than high dynamic range else they would have stopped. This is true for every "nobody likes this" statement people make on the internet about things that are commercially successful nevertheless. Big phones (as someone else mentioned), mobile games, video game movie adaptations, AI music, Marvel franchise entries, funko pops, they're all running circles around people that don't personally like it and who are in circles of like-minded people.
When people listen to two pieces of audio they generally prefer the louder of the two. That doesn't mean they want you to turn up the volume dial for them. They can adjust the volume dial themselves, and if everything gets louder they'll turn down the volume dial to compensate.