Interesting...
What HiFi's review validates some of my thoughts about speaker placement and phantom center channels. I imagine that if you can place the L and R at ear level and relatively close to the TV set, you generally won't miss a center channel.
The said, placement flexibility does seem to flatter this system. Each speaker has an upward firing driver, so you get height effects throughout the sound field. Strictly speaking it's a 4.0.4 system, or you could add a sub for a 4.1.4 system. Sony says that it creates 12 virtual speakers. Interestingly, it may be microphones, not drivers, that enable the trickery. Each speaker has only one tweeter (front facing) and one upward facing full range driver and one forward facing full range driver. But each unit listens through two mics, so the satellites would appear to have the ability to locate themselves and help the system determine the relative position of each satellite not just from a single listening position or sweet spot, but from around the room...
It would seem that a number of wireless speakers should already have the hardware to pull off similar trickery... With the right app features there's no reason a four pack of Home Pods or Sonos Eras couldn't do the same? Or for that matter any scalable number of speakers (within reason)...