Why people place a sofa with the backrest against a garden window and install a screen as the central element in the living area will probably remain a mystery to me forever.
You are a sound specialist after all. There are people, like us, who sometimes have a proper home cinema evening. In principle, you will surely agree that for such a target group, your criticized variant is still better than a TV in front of a large window, including center and front speakers. Then you might as well do without the window. From a pragmatic point of view, a window should bring light. It still does so with such a setup.
When I watch TV and enjoy the sound, I don’t want to look out the window. I don’t do that in a cinema either.
That said, when we simply sit in the living area, we always sit at the dining table, not on the couch by the window. There we have more or less a panoramic view outside.
Conclusion: a place should be designed according to daily habits. One person sits on the couch and wants to look at the greenery (if at all possible), another sits on the couch and has a cinema/TV evening.
All correct from my point of view.
All this especially against the background that few people have the space and above all the money for their own cinema room.
If you like to watch TV, that is.