In almost 25 years of sub use and integration with various systems, I find that my newly customized room designed around the principals of room mode mitigation, noise abatement, and damping resonances based on my experience in building secure sound proof spaces, has paid off.
Yes, indeed. A great room is a lot more speaker friendly. You eliminate a number of issues related to room/sub/speaker integration here as well. I’m not saying they can’t be overcome, but that few do it well.
But if you were to put those same speakers in a modest, average living room, I’m sure I could beat their performance with subs, EQ and bass traps. :-)
The only way to tell if you need bass traps is to measure, or experiment. No room modes? No reason. You’ll just suck bass out of the room. Using Roon in a great room? A little PEQ in the digital domain may be all you need.
Best,
E