I would take an AVR with Dirac/Trinnov/room Perfect over any stereo amp.
Assuming that an AVR has enough power for taking your speakers to your desired SPL, the final result from an AVR, properly calibrated through an advanced DSP, will run circles around any high-end stereo amp.
Obviously, if the speakers have too low sensitivity and cannot reach the desired SPL with the AVR, the high-end stereo amp will sound best at those levels.
Reasonable sensitive speakers, around 89db, can achieve 99db with just 50W, at 3m to the MLP.
This calculator is useful to calculate SPL:
https://mehlau.net/audio/spl
Obviously, audiophiles will swear by their high cost high end amps, but they also believe in cable lifters, so there's that