"Is there something I don't know
about CD players"

As been pointed out, the channels are read sequentially.

There are a few things most people don't know about CDs. First of all that they could be quadrophonic. It was never involved, no quad CDs were made and no quad CD players were made.

Also the digital compression scheme used was necessary to make the CD small enough to facilitate in dash CD players in cars of the time, which generally had a predetermined space for the stereo. (that is also why they are not 48 KHz)This facilitated aftermarket stereos and has been changed in more recent cars. The strive to make it non standard so that they have a captive market on the stereos.

And the LASER beam is not a beam at all, it is conical shape. this means that on the bottom surface of the CD where all the scratches and dirt are, the pickup of the signal does not depend on a teeny tiny area.

On a stamped CD, the pits are not darkened at all. They cancel the light out by being ¼ wavelength of light deeper. There is no mask nor pigment involved, unlike burned CDs.

In the beginning of stamping CDs in the US, Teelarc could not produce a defect free disk. They had to get engineers from overseas to figure out what they were doing wrong. So much for "America number one ?".

All obsolete. Now DVDs are obsolete. Now bluray is obsolete. They got a holographic disk now that holds so much more data that nobody can use it. Thatis the only reason it is not on shelves. Also, do you really want your entire library of movies and whatever on one disk ? Scratch that.