A large horizontal cluster of subs blocks some sound going to the sides or rear, ok I get that, but does not affect the ration of SPL in front, from near to far.
Except that it does, did you watch the video I linked? This is why there is a nearfield and farfield response difference with large arrays, the "piling up" of energy on axis means that SPL only drops at 3db per doubling in the nearfield.
