I'm curious what the problems would be with the above configuration. Don't most movie theaters actually spread the center channel out several yards across the front screen with 2 or even three speakers so as to spread out the center information for better imaging throughout the theater?
You would think that if you were sitting dead center, in between them, you would get a great, well grounded, "phantom center" center channel, and if you were off axis, the dialogue woudl still appear to come from the center of the screen despite it being off to one side, if only very slightly.
In a large, wide room, I can see how this application woudl eb very useful. It would probably only be problematic when mixing sounds in between the front channels and the center (like in a pan). The sound may appear to "jump" across the screen too much and sonud unnatural.
Anyway - very interesting thought.
