Not disagreeing, but: Bass reflex designs are an exception to some of what you've written. They essentially use the reflected sound wave you've mentioned to increase the output in certain low frequencies, by letting it out of a specially constructed hole in that solid cabinet.
I'm sure that you're using simplified terms to explain this but bass reflex enclosures don't use reflected sound per se. It's a heimholtz resonator(like blowing across the top of a glass bottle) and the air in the port is in phase with the front of the speaker until it's tuning frequency at which point it rolls off more steeply than a sealed enclosure because of phase cancellation.
It completely amazes me sometimes the shit people know.
It would be weird if these speakers existed without there existing anyone who knew this stuff.
Make a DIY bass cabinet and you learn a lot along the way.
Indeed, bass reflex is something else, it's tuned to a specific frequency and with bass reflex the whole box is the sound source.
My dad had these really in-efficient AR-3 speakers growing up in the 80s (needed a lot of power to drive). When moving they were so heavy, turns out not Base Reflex but a defunct speaker technology called "Accoustic suspension"
True. This is one of the disadvantages of electrostatic speakers. They have to be placed away from the wall for this reason. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_loudspeaker
Some people think the enclosure's function is to resonate, similar to the body of a violin or other stringed instrument. This is totally false. Cabinet resonances are undesirable distortion in a speaker intended for sound reproduction. This is why good speakers are heavily dampened. Although it's a little rough, some people like the "knock test". If you're buying speakers, give the side a few soft raps with your knuckles in several different places. If it booms like a hollow box, it's bad. If it sounds like you're knocking on a solid chunk of wood, that's good.