OK I get it. Isn't all that because it is rather hard to correctly implement such math trickery? Since it's not just about manipulating bits, you need to have a pretty good background in physics to do it properly. The more you know about the physics of sound the cleverer you can be about what to discard and what to keep.

I have used Macs since my youth and used iTunes before it was even called that, so encoder quality was never a problem I had. I guess I'll revisit the topic more deeply one of these days, still not that keen on that much math though.