>>I am curious, has anyone else noticed that in many posts about "bookshelve speakers" (in general), there seems to be some expectation that they will sound like floor standing, or towers?
Absolutely. Back in the bad old days, those people were the ones who fuelled the "big boomy cheap speaker" market, who took their (sometimes) decent sounding bookshelf speakers back and picked up speakers which could at least play loud and deliver bass but usually paid a high price in other aspects of sound quality.
Now things are better. Many people have heard of subwoofers so they have another expansion path available today... adding a sub and using the bookshelves as "big satellites" (eg. my "M2 + big-ass sub" system).
I was a bit spoiled though -- the first "purchased" bookshelf speakers I owned after years of homebuilding big towers were the old PSB Betas -- 8" woofer with servo amp -- so I got REAL good bass from my first bookshelf speakers
