This.
Cropping is a disease. Television, to this day, still does it, as if composition doesn't matter. VHS did it. IMAX does the opposite but that's just as ridiculous. Cropping or resizing = contempt for the art form. And weirdly, directors are in on it.
I am not a fan of IMAX. I don't think it does anything. It's just a bigger screen. In a damn box ratio. Blown up television. Give me Cinemascope any day of the week. Just make a big IMAX screen and add the sides. It's only a box because of the limitation of that antiquated film format running through a camera gate that can barely take the stress. Most of that stuff isnt even shot in IMAX but "FOR IMAX." Which is just digital cameras like Venice 2 or Alexa 65.
This fluctuating presentation format is also ridiculous. Do we believe that compositions matter? So you're telling me a filmnaker supposedly cares about every little detail about presentation but then doesn't care that vast majority of the movie will be played in theaters in some compromised cropping? I'd rather lock the image in a very specific format and make sure everyone sees it according to my intended compositions with edits calibrated to that eye tracking.
The irony is there's nothing more dismissive of cinema than the idea that fluctuating compositions due to format presentation don't matter, whether it's IMAX or iPhone.