Why so obsessed with bass?

Kitchen island good place for sub. 

Such a obsession to deal with bass issues.  Why is this?

The ability to control the extra low frequency is just plain fun for me.
  

On a sub if there is too much rumbling simply turn it down.

With proper room placement and modern multiple equalization parameters its possible to increase the extra low frequencies while controlling the subs unwanted nature.
 

As far as mains these probably are not much of an issue for most of us.

Probably not for many but being obsessed I enjoy that brief sense of conformation when I see a statement full range speaker being demonstrated with subwoofers.  

However for bookshelves speakers it makes sense they really aren’t well designed for lower range frequencies.

True, but with the right program material I've been startled by more affordable small two-way speakers than I can remember.
Watch out for that deep rabit hole. 

last time i checked bass and sub bass were part of the audible audio frequency range :) arent we obsessed with how everything sounds?

but seriously bass is the most difficult part of the frequency range to reproduce to an audiophile extent. it requires the biggest speaker drivers and enclosure volume, the most amplifier power and is most prone to room boundary and volume interactions, non linear reflections and frequency cancellations.
get it right and it is rewarding as heck.  
and you ask why the obsession?

I hav eno booming bass, but do have a matching dedicated amp and preamp.  Recently, I had to listen to just my mains to reorient myself to just how much bass I need.  The system does allow me to make old LP's sound much better, especially when I bypass the sub crossover to add harmonics to horribly mixed albums..

I caught one 9 1/2 lbs two weeks ago .