It is interesting you bring that up. There is no general acceptance of floor speakers. However in listening studies at the university of Sheffield UK, they found that front floor speakers were more important than height or ceiling speakers in creating a realistic sound field. The proviso was that the mic arrangement had to allow for that. In their studies they were using a modified Decca tree arrangement and it had to include modification to pick up floor reflections at the front of the sound field.
Jim's point remains relevant however. Whist all this is very interesting, does it really advance good audio in the home? Jim is probably right, that it has the reverse effect. I think percentage wise, there are now less homes with good audio, than there were back in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Part of that is competition for funds, from Internet and computer requirements. You can't escape the fact that 15 speakers and their powering is much more costly than two that was the norm in previous generations.
I belong to the mono era and remember the introduction of stereo. The pundits thought that social resistance going from one speaker to two would be enormous. They were wrong. Stereo spread like wild fire in homes. The audio in the home, quickly become known as the "stereo". Acceptance of any multichannel audio, except sound bars has been at a snails pace compared to going from mono to stereo.
What many people tend to discount about stage-forward stereo now is, that many of us learned how, what and where to implement in which to hear what studio techs intended, from the studio techs themselves. It's definitely how I got hooked on near field, 2-channel listening. I've certainly had enough opportunity, influence and exposure in which to change it up, but never have been missing anything from what I use in which to improve upon the methods.
What has improved the most for me is, speakers are better and more predictable now. After nearly 50 years of mastering 2-channel, the biggest mysteries about speakers have been resolved with measurements. But up until then, the uncomplicated nature of 2-channel with getting the most out of the least, ended up teaching us the most about rooms, bass, EQ, headroom, and scale with regard to 'life-sized' sound.
Granted, music is the main focus of my system, which tends to disclude me from much of the concerns or benefits (or opinions) of complete surround sound. OTOH, I don't understand the benefit of hearing something over my shoulder or behind me without being able to look back and see it. In other words, there should also be surround video as well. Otherwise, a pair of speakers with a good center image and the ability to realistically and seamlessly pan sound from one side to the other tends to be adequate with a single forward screen and still comes across as 3D.
