The whole point of an AVR is to have one box with everything, not two boxes.
For decades
Audio hardware had its own universe but a bridge had to be built to accommodate the newcomer
Video in the equipment offerings... all h*ll broke loose and still continues.
There was no fighting it but not being an AiO (All-in-One) fan to begin with, I did not resist and bought into the whole "AV pre/pro" separates.
Three multi-thousand dollar investments later, I've come to the realization that my next audio system will still have a 'bridge' in between the "A" and the "V" sections but they will be separate-separates.
I would love to find a reasonably-priced but quality HDMI audio extractor box, so that when we get to HDMIv5.65[?] I can throw the old gear out but still keep the my audio system intact. My power amplifiers have been used for all those 3 generations of A/V pre/pro hardware.
If they had stayed in compressed domain as you say
You say "stayed in compressed" like
compression was ever a good thing...