Even classical performers hundreds of years ago complained that audiences only wanted the same old pieces played the exact same way. Even today there are musicians that specialize in replicating jazz solos note-for-note. There must be some innate human need, like hearing the same thing makes the brain fire in the same way, releasing the same chemicals slightly less every time.
If a song is good enough to produce a human emotion in the listener (or if the person is dumb enough to like some garbage music) then that version is what caused the connections, and people only want the same good feeling again. Hearing on old man sing a song with his old man voice will only have the listener think "he sounded good when he was young". The same thing happens with live versions. The musicians might not play something complex that required several takes in the booth to get it right, and the vocalist night not hit a note as high as they recorded it, or hold it as long. Hearing humans hit great notes is part of the production of those good feelings, so knowing what was the best version, and then hearing something fall short of that expectation, leaves one disappointed.