Why so obsessed with bass?

Because Vitamin B is good for you.

The only recordings to contain subsonic energy are a few digital
made since ’85.


I've read some dumb things on here, but that takes the biscuit

Have you ever experienced live music?  A subwoofer (or four in my case) will get you closer to that visceral feeling that one experiences at a concert.

What I have found is that 90% of the bass that is there and 90% of the bass that is not there is in the recording. Most of the music engineers today suck. Studio time is money and they are only interested in bottom line profits. I was a professional sound engineer back in the days of stadium rock and months to produce a single song on an album. The only way to achieve a good tight quality bass sound you have to use compression. This is a lost art today people think bass needs to rattle the windows. I hate most bass in today’s recordings it is just muddy with no detail to the notes. Listened to the new Joe Bonamassa release and the bass is horrendous. I could not make out a single note and could only hear a constant low rumble in the background.

Actually, I know some bookshelf speakers that make better bass than towers. Duke has a very valid point about using just one sub two good mains being better. Even companies like Magico and Wilson make subwoofers for their systems. It is however possible to design a main speaker with excellent bass but it would have to be very large and quite heavy. I do not think that you can get the very best bass this way but this is an opinion. Having built subwoofers for 30 years there are issues specific to subwoofer design that would be difficult to use in a main speaker design. It is easier to do it in a separate unit. In my case since I am so enamored by ESLs it is the only way I can go. I am about to start construction of MS Tool and Woodcraft's Model 4 subwoofer. I hope to have the first unit and proof of concept done by the new year.  
Why is bass so important? Why do us males like kicking a--. Why do we like powerful sports cars? Why did our ancestors bang drums, scream and paint themselves up before battle. Bass is important because it is.
It always brings a smile to people's faces. Once you have it everything else sounds anemic, a Mazda Miata vs a 911 Turbo S cab.
@mwatsme, quite right particularly about distortion. Add bigger drivers to that equation. I do not like the term fast. I do not think it applies. I prefer tight vs muddy. You want to be listening to the driver and nothing else. Unfortunately, enclosures are musical instruments. They make noise when excited by the driver. They also move. These two problems muddy the sound. Building a perfectly rigid, immovable enclosure is very difficult and for commercial interests very expensive. The Magico is a good example. There are contradictions that you have to work through such as,
it is easier to make a small enclosure stiff but you want an enclosure as heavy as possible so it does not move. You can't put big drivers in a small enclosure but bigger drivers have less distortion. Companies have to make compromises based mostly on cost. Even relatively expensive subs like JL Audio units have to make compromises.