Yeah, that goes together with the old adage (proverb) that humbucker pickup inventor Seth Lover, said once, I think it should be a perfect sticky:
"I hear musicians complaining about this or that sound, in a pickup and I couldn't hear it. Then I hear something that bothers the hell out of me, but they can't hear it. You hear something I don't, and I hear something you don't, what the hell are we going to do?"
No better words than there...
It boils down to anything with real amps as well as amp sims too.
The vinyl thing that sounds better are loathed by audiophiles these days. Most comparisons are done to digital CD, and contains MUCH electric music, or even electronice music, save for vocals. So no one can stand a chance in the world to compare to anything as very few of us where there in the studio while the band, artist recorded it. How did it sound from the start on? Live? Very few audiophiles plays instruments for real, and goes for nit picky anal details in the sound.
Very few comparisons are made between recorded music and LIVE ACOUSTIC music. They just keep on comparing between different media, tape, cd, vinyl, CD/DVD-A digital memory. Now, the thing that people missing out on whenever talking "better" with vinyl, is that - as you put it - quotation marks.
No vinyl these days can be cranked up into the "loudness wars" of mastering studio recordings. You can't have brickwall limiter compression that raises the bass levels to 0 db output. The needle of a vinyl record player would derail big time. So have to be "easy" on the compressors/limiters for "tax it to the max". You have to even turn down the bass when the needle hits the last song on the innermost tracks of a vinyl. That's why they very often had ballads at the end of each vinyl side.
This is what I can very well relate to and know what they mean "better" these days. That there are a lot of scratches and pops and clicks, doesn't matter. It's the sound that isn't pressed to limits. Which is impossible to achieve on vinyl. I e in spite of all dynamics lacking on a vinyl, they can bring up the dynamics to that level that vinyl is capable of anyway. Once they saw that CD or digital can have greater dynamics, but you can raise the levels with compressors to 0 db output on all frequencies they could, and did. Just because you can you shouldn't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_fatigue
Introduction of artifacts in audio material
"Musicality, especially on the radio, contains musical aspects (timbre, emotional impact, melody), and artifacts that arise from non-musical aspects (soundstaging, dynamic range compression sonic balance). The introduction of these sonic artifacts affects the balance between these musical and non-musical aspects. When the volume of music is higher, these artifacts become more apparent, and because they are uncomfortable for the ear, cause listeners to "tune out" and lose focus or become tired. These listeners may then unconsciously avoid that type of music, or the radio station they may have heard it on."
