I would guess that he is just stuck in a mode where he wants/expects everything he listens to to be as close to a "live" experience as possible. A lot of folks have that preference, and when they do, surround does not mean all that much. Surround can enhance that kind of experience, but it is an incremental improvement over stereo at most.
Those of us who appreciate that live sound is incredibly limiting and prefer the sonically richer and more immersive experience of a good studio release that you could NEVER get live, however...