the problem nowadays is not about the audiophile per say, but about what is actually available on the market. Most speakers are now small, living room friendly, low efficiency.
Most "modern" audiophile dont get to hear a lot of 15 inch based speakers, or even 18 inch based speakers. Horns are very expensive. you basically only get at your city "hifi" shop some low eff floorstanders with dual 6.5 or 8 inch woofer being propose as flagship status. Even at "hifi" shows, we are being proposed a type of sound that is imo not truly hi fidelity. Just look at the new Dynaudio confidence line, their TOTL speakers use what... 2 x 8 inch woofers, small 5 inch mids, 4 ohm load and 86 db efficient. those type of speakers have a sound that has nothing to do with Big speakers with a big sound. When your used to listening to big speakers, youll listen to the 15k PMC fact 8 with disdain and laugh at any "audiophile" who consider this anything else then a poor excuse of a speaker.
So yeah, its not the audiophile fault, its the "hifi" industry that is implementing a type of sound limited by the WAF trends. that type of sound most audiophile only get to hear and eventually think that this is how hifi sounds like.