Both of the previous posts make valid points but do not clearly acknowledge that, in this real world, all such decisions are based on marketing and profit expectations and will never give more than lip-service to any audiophile considerations. To expect otherwise is unreasonable. What we do (speaking of our little niche of consumers, dealers and manufacturers) is to respond to those decisions by adapting what comes to market and optimizing it for our own goals. Our options are limited by those who do not share our goals.
Well, Sony/Philips wanted a next-gen audio format, and the consumer hook was that it was higher-resolution and multichannel. So the audio quality element was a necessary part of the equation, and the central problem they discovered is that there just aren't enough people who care. Without our goals the whole project would have been even more stillborn than it was. My point, though, is simply that having a format war without much of a market meant that to the extent any chance of success of a next-gen audio format existed, consumer confusion snuffed it out.