skotdee, please consider that the farther apart you splay (spread) the microphones, the narrower the total angle they'll cover as a pair. That alone should make it clear that stereo recording doesn't work in terms of "where the microphones are pointed."
If you're looking for a method of visual imagery that will help you to understand this, consider visualizing the area of overlap between the patterns of two microphones. That overlap becomes less when the microphones are spread more widely apart (or when the microphones themselves are positioned some distance apart), and it becomes greater when they are more nearly coincident and/or parallel to each other.
I strongly recommend not just reading Michael Williams' publications, but trying out many different setups and observing what he describes. My hat is off to that man--I had been recording for over thirty years and had already won my Grammy award before I read his writings, and as soon as I started applying what I learned from them, I became very much the better as an engineer.
--best regards