Part of it could either be that they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix, don’t want to for purity’s sake or I’ve seen issues with trying to condense surround soundscapes down to stereo.

It all comes down to dynamic range and they should be using all of it for theatrical release and then remastering for home release.

TV shows do not get a pass. Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.

No, blame the streaming companies. Dynamic range is a known standard. All they need is:

• a "louder dialogue" toggle switch to amplify the center channel in the downmixing settings (Kodi, many TVs, and all dedicated receivers can already do this FYI for this exact reason)
• a "night mode" toggle switch that turns on an audio compressor (my 20 year-old receiver has that feature -- it's hardly rocket science; I believe YouTube calls it "stabilized audio").

Upsides:

• preserves high dynamic range mix for audiophiles
• works with already released movies (!!!!)
• improves the life of people with tinny speakers, strict loudness requirements, or hearing impairments

Downsides:

• Can't feel superior to audio engineers who are doing their jobs, I guess?
• Streaming companies need to reinvest a few thousand dollars out of the billions they are making to add those two buttons

if you're using linux slap a couple of boosting compressors on the sound using easyeffects to turn up the quiet parts

works remarkably well

My gf and I have been doing this for more than 20 years.

See also: crunchy snacks

Older movies tended to have audio mixes where the dialogue was clear even when loud things were happening, people shouldn't need to use a compressor.

I'm sorry but, the 80s were more than a couple of decades ago. 1986 was 40 years ago.

Also 20 years ago this was still an issue. Plasma screen TVs were becoming accessible to consumers and surround sound was taking off in the home video space. TV was mixed for surround cinematic but not everyone had a surround setup yet. They had to write laws that said the tv commercials couldn't be louder than the main content of the channel (though these laws were largely unenforced).

Hollywood mixes are just awful, have been for decades now. You can go to the theater and have quiet voices and blown-out eardrums from a race scene.

I have a middle-to-upper-end 5.1 setup and have to fiddle with it like hell to keep the voices audible without ruining the action scenes.

Ok, I’ll try to keep this in mind