Normally you have 3 wires, TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) so a common ground.
Lets change this to TRRS, basically the same as we connect our speakers to an amp.
Maybe we reduce crosstalk a little but I don’t think we gain much.
Note that nobody calls the way we connect our speakers to an amp “balanced”.
Small wonder as there is nothing balanced about this connection.
The question is what is happening inside the amp.
If both amps ( yes, 2 as it is stereo) have a common ground, we probably wasted out money by buying that expensive third party “balanced” cord.
But often a balanced out produces much more power than a single ended out.
How do they do that?
An option is to use 2 amps per channel, one “pushing” , the other produces the inverted signal so it is “pulling”.
Obvious in this configuration the L en the R channel don’t share a common ground.
This is the scenario where shortening inverted L and inverted R (using a TRS) might damage the amp and certainly will deliver a horrible sound.