Aww c'mon. I'm a FLAC/Lossless audio guy but MP3s don't sound that bad. Can't tell the difference between a 320Kbit/s MP3 and FLAC in most cases using Foobar2000 ABX testing component. I have to admit though, I have no idea how streaming audio sounds like now since the last time I tuned into internet radio using Winamp was about a decade ago. Youtube sounds quite bad though but its a great place to find long lost songs/music videos you can't find anywhere else and its better than nothing.
RE: Waveform AB comparisons - I think Harman was using brickwalled 32kbit/s bitrate MP3s so we can see and hear the difference. lol
I remember alot of cassettes I bought from the record bars around town back in the day had terrible sound quality. I suspect the locally released cassettes were duplicated using dirty, worn-out equipment. Still that didn't stop me from enjoying the cassettes in my walkman/Sony Fontopia earphones and stock car stereo at the time. Maybe that's why I'm more accepting/tolerant of MP3s today