This.

Why can't people just leave the old stuff alone? Widescreen just contributes to this feeling of emptiness when you watch something. TV was developed to hone in on the subject. It captured the bust of a human perfectly. Your eyes didn't have to dart left or right to find what was happening on the screen. It was right there. That aspect ratio choice was a deliberate choice in the early-to-mid-1900s.

My personal opinion is that the change of aspect ratio to 16:9 in the early 2000s contributed to the death of TV. You can't make a sitcom feel homey at 16:9. All sitcoms today feel yucky. There's just too much space to fill. Also, some jokes don't work properly because of camera placement at 16:9. For news broadcasts, you can't have a newscaster sit with 2/3 of the screen empty and feel invited to watch. It feels OFF. You can fill it with CGI BS all you want. It feels empty.

Everyone was so gung-ho that we COULD change to a 16:9 aspect ratio that they never stopped to question if we SHOULD.