Way way back in the '70s, I used to get really annoyed at many of the choices of titles released in quad. For every five star must have release, there were always stacks of stuff that I would never even notice had they not been quad. The same thing happened at the dawn of SACD and DVD-A. And the labels' choices, comon. It seems they'd always pick the album AFTER or BEFORE the big seller from an artist that everyone would want to be the surround release. I don't have to list examples, you've all lived it.
Anyway, what we have here is this. D-V is a reissue label and they have a very targeted market. They sell what their customers want. If they released these 3 titles in stereo only, some would be sure to say "Hey! There were quad releases of these discs, why not put the quad on the disc!". Well, maybe that's just what they did. They got the rights to the titles and went ahead and bagged the quad as well. What's wrong with that?
We have to stop looking at releases like this as "must buys" because they're surround, but more like "If I want this title I'll buy it, if not, great - someone else is going to want it so let's be happy for them". Everyone has different tastes. We bend our taste at times to get some decent surround and as a byproduct we sometimes find stuff we end up liking. How many people, including myself, never heard of Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson until we got surround product by them?
Of course, these D-V releases are not Steven Wilson, but the example holds true.
Even Marshall from AF told me that he did not want to do a quad subscription plan because he wanted people to buy the music because they liked the material, not just because it was surround.
Buy what you want, don't buy stuff you're not interested in, but don't complain about stuff that actually gets out because some folks will like this and just because you or I can't get what we really want doesn't mean others should be in the same boat.
"Cheers" to D-V for stepping up to the plate with the goods.