Good question but it is not surprising they did so. The media botches a lot more than just the state of Hi-Fi.
The majority of people listening to music don't listen; they multitask their listening along with workouts, driving, work, studying, posting to websites etc. In those environments why would perfect reproduction be a requirement to the majority of consumers? If the majority of people can't sit down to read a book uninterrupted why would music be any different to the masses?