Loudness, man, loudness! What else is there to care about?
For people in cars, towers will still be necessary. The audiophiles among them understand your comment about loudness.
What would it cost to retrofit an existing installation to the highest standard?
Dunno what you radio geeks are rambling on about ;) but from the music production side of the loudness wars things are just as mucked up.
The concept of dynamic range and distortion got mixed up in some record company office. It’s gotten better than it was for a while but when the production world went digital, the old rules changed. And you still have people trying analog SSL desk tricks on computer hardware. The laymans version is that it sounds REALLY bad. Thou shalt not exceed 0dbfs, for it it beith impossible. So of course they try. Just stack a few Waves L2 limiters and crank them. ;)
(Spoken as a hobbyist - no pro iZ I)
In most cases it’s not the fault of the equipment proper, just the way it’s installed and (mal)adjusted. Sometimes, removing certain equipment in the chain can improve things.