Are most recordings so bad it's not worth spending large on speakers?

I think there are meaningful differences even with older or less than perfectly recorded albums/streams. You will still hear things more clearly.

If you want to go from, say $7k to $14k for a pair of speakers is up to you. You should listen to some music you like and see if you think it is worth it. It is also probably a good idea to make sure the system as a whole is balanced. I would for example probably not buy $14k speakers to a $1k amp unless I intended to change that soon after.

If you are going down in price you can also try some of the new active speakers like Dutch & Dutch or Kii Three that have almost everything in the speaker and just needs a streamer or similar to play.

Even some old active speakers might surprise.

BAD:

1.  of poor quality or a low standard.

2.   not such as to be hoped for or desired; unpleasant or unwelcome.

3.  sucks <== audiophile specific def

There are some incredible recordings coming out these days, and they sound amazing on my system.  There are a couple-three companies putting out amazing sounding LPs that blow me away on how lifelike they sound.  Not sure about SACDs, but I hear they are great.  Just don’t listen to them much.  Don’t know Morrison Audio from any other dealer, but I’m very happy with the LPs I am purchasing these days.  Some of my older LPs from 30-40 years ago admittedly don’t sound great.  We all know that different releases sound different.  Great speakers (you choose) make good recordings sound spectacular, IMHO.  Enjoy the Music!  There is so much great music out there.

A lot of "modern music" does sound exactly the way it's supposed to for the intended audience. Overly compressed and played through cheap earbuds. Reproducing some of the studio sound accurately isn't possible because there were no musicians or studio involved-it's done on a computer with synthesized files. So, yes, in those cases it doesn't matter what your gear is because sound quality was never a priority.