Why widescreen won

Slate explains how letterboxed DVDs won out over pan-and-scan, which gives you a full screen picture at the expense of showing you the movie in all its full widescreen glory. Why? Well, besides the fact that the rise of widescreen TVs is making it possible to watch letterboxed movies without having those annoying black bars across the top and bottom,
Slate thinks that the real reason is that filmgoers have gotten more savvy (which sounds like it was painful for them to admit), and aren't satisfied anymore with anything less than seeing the film as it was intended.