Can the need for novelty and change be mitigated by rotation?

Ok if you say so.

I dont say so.... Like your mother said so.... Or your boss...

Common sense and acoustic say so.....

I dont race to win an argument here.... i wanted to correct a misconception....

Just picked up a nice Fanfare FT1a tuner  and I'm rotating that in place of my MD102..  I finally have enough nice gear for 2 systems .  No room right now for two but I will keep rotating gear because its fun

Fun? I’m not reading where that is part of the audiophile equation. I might have to reconsider my choices of hobby. Or at least come up with some new name for it when fun is a thing.🧐

It was fun yes to rotate my headphones...Or my 2 Sansui amplifiers at some point in time...Or some pair of speakers or sone different facs, or different headphone amplifiers etc

But "fun" is not the right word for  this acoustical natural extasy when things are done right...

I will not call "fun" my listening experience now....

i will call it love....

By the way audio was not after all a "hobby" mainly for me, but a critical and survival path for my soul to access music on higher level through a better sound quality....

I believe that "audio nervosa" is real and plagues hobbyists to the extent that it robs them of the ability to enjoy what the machinery they own can reproduce.
I’m not following your peregrinations- every one of us who devotes time to consider, evaluate and address perceived shortcomings in their system has followed some path that, hopefully, has not left them at a dead end.
There is certainly a need for incremental improvements, large and small. But, the constant need to exchange equipment (whether for novelty value or some other reason) tells me that there is something wrong in the combination of components, their set up or a budget vs expectation premise that involves too many variables to mention. (identify one system among any who have posted thus far that is identical, let alone set up the same way, leaving to the side subjective preference, room, etc.).
There is certainly an analytical type of listening-for shortcomings or improvements in a system, or simply to compare two different pressings of the same record, but that’s work. Listening for enjoyment is something I equate with satisfaction, even if that is only a temporary state. But, despite however many decades I have been doing this, I haven’t been much of an equipment swapper on anything like a constant basis.
I have a vintage system that includes components currently running that I was running as early as 1973-75 and my main system, which has benefitted from some modest tweaking (more in power supply, set up, augmentation of bass, positioning in a new to me room, etc.- in other words, the normal sort of set up and maintenance any hobbyist would perform) has otherwise been stable for more than a decade and a half. I use tube equipment entirely in both audio only systems, with the exception of some woofers and subs in the main system.
If the question is how to get off the lab treadmill of churning equipment, I decided to explore my record collection.
I had accumulated about 17,000 LPs over the course of decades of shopping in the States, Western Europe, and by mail and eventually the internet, worldwide. I supplemented where I had gaps, and eventually learned about whole new genres of music which now bring me great joy-- this is far different than listening to "reference" records to make sure everything is OK. And my focus is on what’s happening in the music; the tension that develops in a composition, the empathy or power a performer brings to the moment (and sometimes, particularly with live recordings, those are otherwise lost) and appreciating what all this "stuff" ought to be about. I’m not arguing against gear-head ism, to the contrary I love the artifacts (mechanical especially, though a clean circuit can be a thing of beauty, as can some old tubes), but that we ought to appreciate at least some portion of what these devices are capable of reproducing--if you have moments where you are transported, or otherwise go beyond the machinations of your brain on the "thinking" side, the music can satisfy on a more emotional, primal level. (I never really understood "intellectual" music--I have to be moved). Enough words.
Bill Hart