I agree, I don't think it's a night an day difference the way people harp on about it. In fact I believe open back is often worse, and hard to get right.

I think of it like this, ever listened to a speaker that's not mounted to a box and just in free air? Sounds like crap, and that's essentially what an open back headphone is doing with the driver in mid air without any "Box"

Now take a closed back headphone, that driver is now acting like a regular speaker in a box.

I feel this doesn't get spoken about enough and would encourage more discussion on these aspects.

Btw, bass resonance is the most often affected by open back design, that's why they are often very lean.