I have 2 friends which owned both the O/93 and O/96 DeVores. They replaced them both with speakers which conform more to the current standards of design. First order crossovers, narrow baffles, more inert cabinet construction, etc. It didnt take them long after getting the new speakers to discern exactly how much these DeVores actually missed or got completely wrong.
Before I get to the heart of your post, let's get something straight; it is "DeVORE Fidelity" if referring to the company and John Devore if referring to the person, but there is no "DeVore". But that is a minor thing.
As to the gist of your post, I happen to own both Devore O/93's and narrow baffle speakers with inert cabinets. "Current standards of design"? Who's standard are you referring to? My O/93's in my room and in my system far-outshine my other set of loudspeakers. No contest. They run circles around them. The other set are Spendor D7.2's which admittedly don't have, to my knowledge, first order crossovers.
What sets the O/93's apart is more than truth to tone and timbre-those large baffles project a certain sense of physicality and body that are completely missing in the narrow baffled speakers.
It all boils down to the non-debatable truth that all loudspeaker designs, regardless of price, present compromises. No one loudspeaker can do everything. There is a certain "blemished midrange" with the O/93's that can be heard at times and they are not imaging/soundstage champions. But they are imminently satisfying to those of us who listen for certain things.
When so many widely respected reviewers have Devore O/93's or 96's and when so few appear on the used market, that has to tell you something.
And last, for now, there are advantages to high sensitivity easy-load loudspeakers and wide baffled loudspeakers are much more suited to those design characteristics.
Nope, one more thing. Any post that starts with "I have a friend" or "I have two friends" should immediately alert the rest of us that some disinformation/confusion/distortion is about to follow.