I think all this has it's roots in early DAC implementation - which has indeed been mostly awful and was probably widely discussed (and is forever burnt as Eeeeevil into the brains of early enthusiasts and HiFi-magazine readers). Due to cost restrictions, most of the early CD players came with just *one* DAC (one DAC for both channels, that is). So the companies had the great idea to toggle the channels and to delay one output channel.
This wasn't an issue any more at the end of the 80s, but seems to be still a concern. Probably someone heard about it when still a kid...
Honestly, I think jitter is the smallest problem in a home audio setup. And so did all the engineers back then, obviously. Symmetrical construction for the audio path - yes, please. But those damned bits, some flying wires are good enough. And I guess, they were right...