I would guess that the number of people listening to this media on anything higher quality than the built-in speakers on a 65-inch TV is minuscule. They’re optimizing for sound on an iPad, not a full surround sound setup.
The thing is, if you watch using AirPods on your iPad with spatial audio, it's actually far better than the vast majority of people's actual surround sound setups.
I never cared much about surround sound until the AirPods got spatial audio. Now it's like I can't live without it.
Yup. That’s my guess as well, but on the other hand there is a pretty large industry serving the many people who do have a decent home theater system (and even some where it’s more “theater” than “home”).
As somebody who has a very nice (and expensive) 5.1 set up, I’m legitimately a bit worried about this trend.
