[Tomte]

Your music tastes are not representative of the larger population, nor is your hearing ability.

For example, in all the MP3s I've listened to I have heard a pre-echo only once: in a pre-echo demonstration on Wikipedia (where the pre-echo was even amplified).

Shortcomings exist, but were never relevant to the masses.

Besides, the alternative to MP3 back then wasn't using another format, it was "I cannot download music at home".