Upgrade from B&W 802D1 to Focal Utopia Scala Evo

I have mine about 9’ apart and 9’ from my listening position. They are 3’ out from the rear wall. Imaging is fine and the sweet spot is large. I get good soundstage depth but it rarely extends outside the speakers. Many factors contribute to soundstage. I once heard The Ballad of Bill Hubbard from Roger Waters’ Amused to Death album on Wilson Sascha’s driven by d’Agostino amplification and it sounded like Bill was standing right next to me. It was extraordinary and I’ve never duplicated it. Unfortunately, the bass was too boomy for my taste and I passed over them.

all measurements are from the center of the woofer:

mine are 8' apart, each are 4' from the side walls, and 3' from the front wall. Room is 16 x 21 x 6 feet (finished basement, carpet on cement floor.

the 802D's soundstage was massive routinely extending past the sides of the speakers. Vocals were also more focused and defined. However, instruments are very loud and pronounced on the Focals

How does designing a speaker that takes 500 hours to break-in, make it a good design?

Only speaking to your comment on the theoretical of 500 hours ... good design. 

I would doubt break-in is a target for speakers... but what they sound like is after breakin. A minimum life of a decent speaker system is 20,000 to 30,000 hours withiout noticeable degradation... many can easily go much longer like over 50,000. 500 is not much. I can easily see it happen if the target is very tight sonic qualities then very ridged materials is what you would start with and those materials may take a long time to reach optimum pliability. 

very true. but how does that make it a good design. it seems to me that if a speaker takes that many hours to sound like it should that it is basically a crappy  design