Anyone know why Thiel designed such hard to drive speakers
Not just Thiel, there's many others that strive for perfection and they're usually the most expensive.
Xovers/drivers ect, are complicated to get everything to operate in the most linear function and best specifications without having many compromises, that most efficient speakers tend to over look for the sake of efficiency.
That's why you need great amps usually with great speakers otherwise you don't get what's the speakers capable of giving you, if not you compromise the speakers performance.
Cheers George