Sunflower, after Pet Sounds & the Smile Sessions may be the best Beach Boys album. "This Whole World", with Brian singing lead is amazing. "The Sound of Free" "Lady" & "Susie Cincinnati" are great bonus tracks. "Cool Cool Water" & "Surf's Up" from Smile are presented in true stereo here. I have both the vinyl LP & CD Feel Flows sets and the CD set sounds considerably better and I'm usually a vinyl guy!
Oh having the bonus tracks like that would mess me up too. Even on CDs, after the novelty wore off,it would sometimes make unlistenable albums. The Robert Johnson 2CD was one and similarly the Blue Horizon Fleetwood Mac box - why include two takes in a row? - and 10,000 Maniacs Wishing Chair was another, where they messed up the order and inserted weaker tracks in. Costello tried to do good things by adding space at the end before the bonus cuts but still. And these were CDs. LPs? And little excerpts? Man, no way. Especially if I liked the original running order.
I own sunflower and surf’s up from analogue productions and both sound outstanding for being reissues. Don’t have the originals to compare them to though but I’ve been keeping a look out for them.
Unfortunately (and rightfully so) it does seem your opinion is in line with most others I have read since 2021 regarding not only this collection but it's successor "Sail On Sailor". The gist on The Beach Boys archival collections with the notable exception of 2011's "The SMiLE Sessions" is long on quantity, short on quality in every way inclusive of the packaging, presentation and most egregiously sound quality. I was planning on purchasing this collection back in 2021 but after reading so many abysmal reviews of the sound quality which I subsequently confirmed by previewing several of the cuts on Amazon Music, I just couldn't justify the price tag. As it stands both box sets are likely to never be in my physical media collection, reduced to being "stream only" music.
When it was first released, picked up the CD set. Primarily for all the bonus material. Definitely prefer the original separate albums for the vinyl listening experience.