The reason is not on account of the quality of present-day recording technology but because of the music itself. Amateur musicians are fortunate in having no personal axe to grind, they can listen to every kind of music with absolute impartiality, they do not have to account for their choice. It is often quite remarkable how eclectic the taste of the majority of music lovers can be. Those of us in the profession can have wide tastes as well, but this is not invariably the case. But, despite this, perhaps it is reasonable to assume that performers in general like the music they sing or play, otherwise they would not get involved in the performing business at all.
Composers are different.
They are not primarily executant musicians, interpreting in their own way, what others have created. The composer is an individualist who strives most of all to persuade the world at large to listen to what he has to say rather than to pay attention to the creations of others. So, when someone says to me with unbounded enthusiasm that they have just bought a CD of XYZ's latest symphony, concerto, or whatever, or been to hear it in a live performance. I do not necessarily share their enthusiasm, nor am I invariably pleased to know of the latest craze for XYZ's music. Often the outcome is a fearsome confrontation until the strongest asserts his superiority.