5.1 and 7.1 systems aren't all that widespread, even in the music industry. Surround kinda sits in the same place vr does for me. It's immensely cool, but it'll never become standard due to hassle and lack of support.
Most of the recent innovation in sound has been trickled down from the music and film industries. Just a general increase in the capabilities of soft synths and a better understanding of foley, alongside dedicated in house recording studios have raised the bar of audio.
To be honest I agree with you that sound is overlooked, sound engineers truly are unsung heroes. I mean even when people point out the sound in a game, it's usually directed at the composer.
I was visiting there in 2019. Of the hundreds of thousands of balconies there, I saw less than a hundred with lights on ~10pm.
It's far away too. ~18km to get there from Iskandar Puteri (not intensely dense, but sees some traffic due to legoland), and ~35km from Johor Bahru (the main city area of Johor).
They must have done the whole build it and they will come thing before realising no one wants to live in a ghost town.
At least it looked kinda impressive???