answer:YES! You are correct! It’s because we can now do that (i.e. flat screens are easy to manufacture that way compared to tube screens), and it matches the proportions of feature films, so they can be shown without cutting off the edges. But then there are far too many people who don’t notice and/or prefer it when the “whole screen is used” even on 4:3 aspect ratio content, resulting in (horribly disturbing to me) stretched images, with extra-wide people and distorted shapes. I really have a hard time relating to how many people don’t notice, accept it, and prefer that. I don’t care if there are black bits on the sides as long as the image isn’t stretched out.