Im only criticising the use of the term asceticism here… of course I know the experience and sound is different

Asceticism is a term, like "large" or "small", that only has meaning relative to some standard. Relative to "hear whatever I want from the entire history of recorded music right now using a single cheap device", the act of playing a physical format on a complex assortment of devices you integrated is relatively ascetic. Hence the softening of the term with "middle path".