Why do many discussions about sonic performance disintegrate into technical discusions?

+1 @erik_squires   Yea, the car analogy is appropriate.  In trying to explain what being an audiophile or enthusiast is about, I often use the car analogy.  In the same way that we tweak our systems with different footers, fuses, cables to tailor the sound to our liking, auto enthusiasts will install special struts to tune the suspension, sculpted pistons, or fancy exhaust manifolds to eek out  a few more horsepower and torque from their rides.  

Just as the car guy/gal will describe the enhanced handling or acceleration of their vehicle we extol the sonic virtues of transparency textural smoothness etc. that we realize from tweaking our systems.

I like to read about the technical changes AND the sonic changes that they brought to a system.

What what percent of forum members are women? I’m also semi-active in a car forum and I’ve never seen a post by a woman. I wonder if all the gear talk, and the technical jargon, is just totally outside the realm for women. 

Penalty flag! 😠 Some women might consider your post to be a micro or macro aggression.  "The Horror"

 I am pleasantly surprised to hear so many members here mention their wives as anecdotally confirming the sound improvements they hear.  I must agree with you though that there appear to be few women who get into the gear part of this obsession.  Many do appreciate the nuances of fine sound in their homes, however.

The "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" thing has a lot to be said for it.

Lots of cliches arise from that reality.  Men purchase, women shop.  Men get lost, women stop to ask for directions etc.

So does lack of encouragement for women to be involved in STEM

I look forward to seeing more women engineers and fans in all areas of science and technology.

Look up Heddy Lamar. I bet if she was alive today she'd have lots to say about speaker and amplifier design.

https://www.biography.com/people/hedy-lamarr-9542252

I think that audiotroy is talking about two separate topics here:

1) Threads that go off the rail, off topic what the OP is asking about.

2) Whether technical jargon should be discussed in the forums.

Forgive me if I misread you, as I'm not exactly sure which thread you are referring to, but that is what it looks like to me.

As for 1, I do agree that I have seen many threads go off the rails, and it is rather disappointing to witness. Some threads have done this so badly, that I've deleted all of my posts in that thread, just so that it won't appear in my feed anymore. I've lost interest in the derailed thread.

For the second question, I don't like to totally focus on technical aspects, but I am very interested in some technical details. What kind of transistors or tubes an amp uses, MM, MI, or MC phono cartridge, metal dome or soft dome tweeter, dynamic, electrostatic, or planar speaker, can all be helpful information when trying to contemplate a reply.

These details, and many more, about a product I think can be useful information in these forums. Sure, some folks can go too far, with too much information. However, others can not provide enough information to get any helpful responses as well.

I think following topic number 1, if the OP clearly states that he is only interested in sound, and not technical aspects, that his request should be honored, and if someone wants to go into technical details about that topic, they should start their own thread.
However, if the OP does not rule out technical questions, the forum should be open to ask them.