Why don't more recordings have soundstage outside of speakers

Lately I feel my system  is dialed in better than ever and is sounding very good on a wide variety of music. This has come at the expense of some "special effects." I put that in quotes because, as was mentioned earlier, playing with tonal response can do some sort of magical things on some recordings, creating intense vividness and a sense of presence in the room - the kind of thing that gives you goose bumps and sometimes  brings tears to the eyes. It's beautiful, but it comes at it's own cost of versatility on playback. Most music wasn't recorded to be heard that way or create effects like that so some stuff ends up sounding worse, and we're tempted to say it's just a poorly mixed recording. 

I was thinking about how much better I've been liking my TV lately for similar reasons - I have the color and contrast set to "calibrated,' and learned that the TV needs to be in it's native color temperature to look best - which is cooler than I thought I wanted and not what the TV defaults to. It defaults to a warmer setting that limits contrast and brightness. Letting the TV be what it naturally is due to the color temperature of it's LCD backlight has made me more satisfied. Similarly, with my speakers, I had to accept the tonality that is natural to the relatively narrow dispersion pattern of the speaker and not try to tweak it to make some things sound more dramatic or present like they might with a wider dispersion speaker. In both cases the answer was to pursue accuracy of tonal relationships - flat, extended response, and let the presentation be what it is. 

 The TV presents a 2D image that can convey a sense of 3D depth but there's no real 3D. With stereo hearing, I don't think that we really hear in 3D like we see with our eyes. It seems like it's really just 2D on a spherical surface surrounding our head. The "depth" perception in hearing comes from similar clues to what we'd see on a 2D spherical screen surrounding our head. We get distance cues from reverb effects in the recording and tonal changes and overall level - nothing explicitly like we do with our eyes by comparing how much we've crossed our eyes to achieve convergence and thereby determining distance. 

If you had a projection TV, a trick you could do for immersion is to over project some of the image by stretching it's edges on to the floors, ceiling, and sidewalls. That way you would see the image on screen but still detect light and motion changing in sync all around you, giving a sense of immersion by filling your peripheral vision. That's a trick that might be fun and enjoyable at times, but not part of the original artistic intent. At this point in my life I'd rather not be immersed so much in my home environment, but rather have the work presented to me in a clear and accurate manner within the limits of the format, framed and contained in a neat package. 2 channel audio is just 2 channels. It sounds great just like a flat 2D TV that's properly calibrated and has good color depth, contrast, and resolution looks great. You can detect all kinds of information about the original event and be pulled into the music and mood of the occasion thoroughly without a convincing virtual reality effect - as amazing and impressive as that can be at times.  

That's just my preference, not a statement of absolute truth. I may change my mind at some point.

This topic reminds me of Carver's Sonic Holography.  Years ago I had a Carver preamp with the SH built in.  It worked but had to be set up just perfectly with your listening position with 1/4 inch distant from each speaker. Many rock recordings are not of the finest engineered.  Some use effects which can be fun.   I'm not against it.  It's all about listening to music you enjoy and having fun. 
I have some stereo recordings that sound almost mono with all the music squashed in between the speakers and others that the sound can go pretty far beyond or behind and even above and others that pretty much stay within the limits of the speakers.  

pragmus and anyone else who thinks stereo systems should image outside of the loudspeakers:
You ability to determine where a sound is coming from depends mostly on where the loudest sound in coming from and the delay between getting to one ear to the other. If you do not agree with this you can stop right here.
The volume of the sound coming from a point source speaker decays at the cube of the distance. If you do not agree with this you can also exit here. 
lets set up two microphones each one connected to it's own speaker in another room 10 feet apart left and right. I'm going to have a trumpet player walk up to the left channel microphone and play a tune. The listener in the next room is going to hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker and maybe a tiny bit from the right channel speaker as the right channel mic is on and it will pick up the trumpet but at a much lower level. In short you hear the trumpet coming from the left channel speaker directly and not to either side because the sound to either side drops of at the cube of the distance and you only hear the trumpet coming from the loudest source which is directly from the speaker. The same will be true in opposite if the trumpet is played into the right channel mic. If I put the mics together and play into both on them the trumpet is going to appear as if were coming out of thin air directly between the speakers. You can read her for the theory  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound 
Never does the sound come from beyond the speakers and this holds for an entire symphony orchestra. If a sound is coming from outside the speakers there are only three ways that can happen. 1st is there is another speaker such as a surround sound set up playing. Next is a studio phasing trick where you get cancelation in front of the loudest source throwing the sound out to the side like Roger Waters does on Amused to Death. Last is the speaker is right next to a wall and the first reflection is loud enough to move an instrument beyond the speaker. This is a distortion as I pointed out earlier. All first reflections should be dampened so this does not happen. Imaging outside the speakers is a sign of poor room control. The ambiance of a recording can be outside the speakers as it is a product of late reflections but that is it.  

I forgot to mention dipole users. If angled correctly dipoles can bounce sound off the front wall, then the side wall next to the speaker to the listener and the reflected sound can throw instruments to the outside. But, this is also a distortion and should be dampened out.
This is probably a good reason why many people do not get decent imaging because reflected sounds can play havoc with it.

Mijostus - 

You ability to determine where a sound is coming from depends mostly on where the loudest sound in coming from and the delay between getting to one ear to the other.

You then go on to talk about relative amplitude and don't mention the delay again at any point in your thought experiment. If you listen to a binaural recording through headphones it is immediately apparent that there's more going on than just 'the left is louder so it must be over there'.

People talking about music - 
Tom Waits' Rain Dogs LP has a nice sound stage too.