I very much agree with your observations. Thanks to you and SH on shedding some more light on this often murky subject.

Soundhound's ability and professional experience allows him to play ball on a field that I have seen, but only as a spectator.

As an architect, I have designed performance spaces and studios, working in concert with the same audio/recording engineers who will operate the environment. As has been said many times, the interaction between the speakers (monitors) and the room is most critical to the overall success of the performance space. While there are some basic rules of thumb that should be observed, the best attempts to model the actual dynamics of a room can only put you in the acoustic ballpark, but usually far from hitting a homer.

There are always compromises that must be made, but the most important lesson I have learned is to provide as much flexibility as possible for positioning the equipment, and options for introducing acoustical panels and/or treatments. I am always amazed by the impact that small changes can have on a room's acoustic profile. The introduction of sophisticated audio spectrum analysis and equalization has made it possible to fine tune the environment even further; after the reasonable passive design strategies have been exhausted.

The Vienna Concert Hall (Wiener Konzerthaus) has been analyzed using the most detailed computer models available; and it is most often predicted to be an acoustic disaster. Parallel walls, bad proportions, and lots of other sophomoric blunders... despite this, it's sound is considered the reference standard for concert halls throughout the world.