Stereo recording is not just for left/right movement effects, but at its best creates a 3-dimensional soundspace. Well engineered stereo will allow you to locate each musician, not just left to right, but forward and back as well.
People who are able to hear with both ears can place objects in the environment as near or far, in front of us and behind us, coming or going, because the sound enters each ear at a different moment.
Stereo doesn’t necessarily mean better, however. Listen to the original mono release of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers. They took excruciating pains to make it sound magnificent. Each instrument can be heard distinctly, though each appears to come from a central point. The stereo version, which they produced for market pressure reasons and spent only a few weeks on, has much less clarity, though the novel left/right effects are more pronounced.