What is the 'correct' aspect ratio then?
Most people for the next 3 or 4 years are going to have 95% or more
stuff available over cable at 4:3 aspect ratio, why would they want to
buy a tv that would have those annoying bars on the sides for 95% of
what they are going to watch for a next few years?

Seems to me that it would be bass-ackwards to buy a tv set that does
not fit most of your available viewing material.

The problem so far in being able to get enough HDTV sets and ATSC
tuners available has been the widespread penetration of cable. To use
the still standard cable, you need a standard tv set. Cable companies
have been slow to provide HDTV capable signal at reasonable cost.