I should be 100% clear: in the right hands, ‘scope aspect ratio can be a beautiful thing. Look no further than Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress for one of the most meticulously-composed films in the history of the art.
What I mean to say is that, as Rebecca hints at in comments, I fear that widescreen is too often used because bigger must necessarily be better in the studios’ eyes, and I strongly believe that if one is not a great visual artist (as the commanding majority of summer blockbuster directors most certainly are not), 1.85:1 is going to make it a hell of a lot easier to find good compositions by accident than the rather punishingly rectangular 2.35:1 ever could.