As somebody who mixes TV and film, I can tell you right now that the overwhelming majority of consumers don't care about surround sound, even if it adds a lot to the experience. Consumers are easily pleased.
The average consumer doesn't want to immerse themselves and inhabit another world, they want to append to their existing one in an unintrusive way. This is an America-centric fantasy. Internet connections aren't good enough in many places, and a VR/AR headset is going to be inaccessibly priced.
For me personally, I don't care about surround sound if the visual material is not itself 3D surround.
So I only found it important in VR and AR, and sometimes in 3D games it's nice too, but not as much as in VR games.
> they want to append to their existing one in an unintrusive way
That's what AR and mixed reality is about.
You really need to think, what if there was hardware that could provide high fidelity mixed reality and be super comfortable to integrate. Maybe it's as thin and light as normal sunglasses. Maybe it projects things directly in your eyes, or in the air around you.
Like obviously all of this is premised on hardware that reaches this level of comfort and quality to be mass produced. But I think companies think that's just a matter of time, just like for radio, television, computers, smartphones, etc. before it.
If I'm wearing some glasses that make it look like my friends are sitting on the various chairs in my living room, then it matters a lot that the sound feels like it's coming from where they are.
Most consumers have frequently experienced and enjoyed surround sound, and yet they generally don't find it compelling enough to be worth putting in their homes.
Not like surround sound kits aren't available easily and cheaply. Consumers simply aren't interested. Huge 4K television despite very little 4K content being available? Yep. Surround sound? Nope. I've seen playback stats for a large streaming service, very few people bother.
The average consumer doesn't want to immerse themselves and inhabit another world, they want to append to their existing one in an unintrusive way. This is an America-centric fantasy. Internet connections aren't good enough in many places, and a VR/AR headset is going to be inaccessibly priced.