I gave up my 7200HC center many years ago and have noticed only an improvement in HT at the end of it. Today I urge anyone who asks me to just do L+R for HT. With a center in place, 95% of the SPL comes through the center and try as one may, it is not possible to match the tonality of the L+R with C, even where they are all same brand.

Prior to giving up the C, I had it in place for many years as well. There is tons of stuff about this on Google.

That is my experience. Quite at variance with the others here, I'm sure.

Oppo UDP-203, Sonos, Nvidia Streamer, Fire TV 4K, Trinnov Altitude32 into Dan D'Agostino Momentum into Wilson Alexx, Paradigm Sub 1, Monitor Audio In Wall surrounds, JVC NX9