"I suppose most small rooms, especially rooms with low ceilings, simply don't have the volume needed to develop low frequencies."This is one of the long standing myths about audio. If this statement were true, headphones wouldn't work, and there would be no bass in a car. When the wave length becomes large with respect to the space, the entire space pressurizes and the air vibrates as a single mass. Your ears can't tell the difference from a passing wave train and a pulsating pressurized room.
The rest of the discussion of room problems was correct. In these small rooms most of the nodes are along the walls and in particular in the corners. The loops are in the middle of the room. I was fortunate to find the bass performing reasonably at the seat I planted my visitors in.
Bob