Who puts their speakers right up against the back wall and why?

Who puts speakers against a wall? People who live in real houses and live real lives! Three cheers for Larsen. Have you heard them? They are designed to put out a quarter hemisphere of sound. I heard them first at CES a few years ago. Walking by the open door of the hotel room, they sounded wonderful. If I placed speakers "three feet from the side walls and at least 30 inches from the back wall," I couldn't get to my front door. Speakers have to live with us, not us with them. You can hang oriental rugs, curtains, your wardrobe on the wall behind the speakers. Space them an inch off the wall. It's nice to have a dedicated listening room, but some of us can't afford it. Keep listening!

The Snell Type A2 I had years ago sounded really nice with 4”-6” space from a really solid wall.  A buddy had earlier Snell TypeA speakers without any rear vent or drivers and used them almost against the wall. 

Interesting article on this topic:

https://sonicscoop.com/2017/12/14/the-1-speaker-placement-tip-speaker-manuals-get-completely-wrong/

I have a pair of Polk sda speakers that image better than most speakers out there and they were designed to be up against the wall. They even image better than my apogee duetta 2's.

I've heard the Larsen loudspeakers, which are engineered to be put up against a wall.   They're intended for those with room decoration issues that require this.

They sound pretty good, but be aware that their imaging is a little 2 dimensional.   I certainly wouldn't expect ANY other loudspeaker to do better being forced to sit butt up against a wall.  They make the best of a very bad situation.

Have you ever considered divorce?