You're more optimistic about this stuff than I am, but I think I get your perspective. We have decent sentiment analysis, fluent text generation, and real-sounding TTS, so combining them will yield a pretty good reading. I agree that you're probably right when it comes to newspaper columns and magazine articles, but that's not on the level of a good audiobook.

To take an example, here's an iconic line from the Fellowship of the Ring:

> The wizard swayed on the bridge, stepped back a pace, and then again stood still. ‘You cannot pass!’ he said.

If you think that is a command, you should shout it like Ian McKellen in the movie. If you think it's a statement based on superior knowledge (see https://acoup.blog/2025/04/25/collections-how-gandalf-proved...), you should probably state it with certainty and fatigue. And if you're making a movie with a ton of crazy special effects and swelling music, you should probably make whatever choice goes best in that context.

Even if a model could make some consistent choice there, I wouldn't be all that interested, because the reader conveying their interpretation of the character to the listener is what matters. Sure, it might get enough Spotify plays to make some money, but it's not art.