"Imaging is an illusion convincing but the not actually based on the position of the artist when the recording was made."
Of course it is. What does it matter? No different than changing two or three seats over to left or right, or two rows back, at a classical music concert, or changing ten rows different beyond the first fifteen at a loud pop/rock/R&B music concert. In the latter instance, sheer SPL completely obliterates any sense of 'imaging' or 'stage depth' to begin with.
If it's a good recording, I can easily imagine myself (with eyes closed) as being at a somewhat different sitting in the audience than the recording microphones, and I'm fine with that, since the result I'm hearing relates so closely to personal real life experience in any case.
Hail, hail! human psycho-acoustics! If Decware or Omega speakers or Zu or Caintuck or others want to 'manipulate' us by such devious means, all I can say is "More power to them!"
Please understand, I am not meaning to carp. I'm just responding to a very good point you brought up. I know that others use the 'replication of where the microphones were' as a gold standard, but from my experience that is just not realistic, even from the best recordings played back through the best gear. All we can do is to get close or closer to the experience of being there, and that's where the 'playback gear' comes in (on our part), which is why so many of us interested in "replication by means of sonic /aural implication of the original experience" have found our way to the Decware site in the first place.
"& The Monkeys"
Oh, you've done it now!
Gonna Buy Me a Dog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY1QLITgJ_A