Bookshelf speakers vs floorstanders in a small room

[Shaggy]

For a normal sized room, say a spare bedroom or a small living room, is there a real case for floorstanders anymore or do good bookshelves plus a sub do everything you actually need?

For those who have run both in a smaller space, what did you land on and why? Trying to figure out if the big towers are worth the floor space or if its mostly ego.

 

[Jacobite1746]

My living room is only 16m2 so not very large at all. I have had from ProAc Super Tablette to my current recent acquisition of YG Acoustics Ascent floor standers plus a Velodyne SPL800R Ultra sub woofer.
I had no trouble with any bass problems at all with the super tablets on stands. I still have no trouble with bass, however I now have a considerable amount of room acoustic treatment and the YG Acoustics are sealed box speakers. My previous speakers were Avalon Acoustics Avatar and they were seal box too.
Before choosing the YG Acoustics Ascent I had numerous bass reflex (ported) floor standers in my room but none of them worked properly. The bass reflex speakers were front, ported rear ported and base ported, but alas, none of them work properly.
I believe that the key to controlling sound in a small room is room acoustic treatment. I spoke with one of the engineers at GIK acoustics and asked him a question which was, would I be correct in stating that the smaller the room the more acoustic treatment you need. He answered, yes. It is a fine line between getting it correct and over damped though.