"As far as I'm concerned we're talking about apples and oranges."
You're not letting go of what you see, stuck in the same box everyone else is. Two channels two ears, laughable and ridiculous
"I'll go with you that these effects sound awesome on multichannel."
Typical audiophile response, actually they don't "sound awesome" they are distributed properly and not smashed between me and the subject of the recording. Thus they don't sound bad. Surround relieves a negative.
To simplify this for explanation, draw a circle then draw a line dividing the circle in half, if the circle represents the "echo" effect on a drumstick strike your stereo system can only recreate half of the circle the rest of the circle collapses into noise. That noise is disproportionately high harmonics thus hi frequency, shift the balance of the recording
A 360 degree system will not collapse the circle into noice but retains the general shape of the circle. It disperses the high frequency energy created by effects in their proper form, keeping them from dissolving into unrelated noise like a two channel system does.
RVG is ancient history, and yet benefits from surround as much or more than a modern pop recording. Recordings that have "hall" sound like classical recordings from a soundstage ebnefit even more from surround.