I wouldn't fret too much over the numbers seen here for AVR's and Pre/Pro's. First the likelihood of these measured failures from perfection being very audible are very small. Add in the quality of your speakers, are they SOTA that deliver a very detailed presentation capable of revealing the extremely tiny distortions caused by a less than SOTA DAC? I do send out big kudos to Amir for measureing and revealing these failures, there's really no excuse. Much of it could be improved or corrected with some better layout design, etc without adding huge costs to the consumer. I've got a feeling we may start seeing some better gear in the future due to the revealing of sloppy design.If these units are testing badly, and highly regarded brands like McIntosh are still putting tubes in their top end Receivers, what hope is there to find a transparent AVR?
Then when we are talking about these things, in 95% of the cases we are using some type of included DRC which will firstly, if done well, will give you better sound at the listening chain than a SOTA front end that doesn't offer any. Also one thing that hasn't been looked at anywhere AFAIK is what the various pieces of DRC software actually effect the signal in regards to such things like the various distortions, etc etc etc. We don't really know the end signals SQ with DRC switched in as no one is measuring them that way. They could be highly transparent or they could be . We expect the sound to change radically when we turn on DRC and questioning it or even doing something like a DBT between any of them is pretty much impossible.
IMO your best shot at getting something really good is to start with either a PrePro or a AVR with line level outputs so you can pick your own amps.
One of the main failings of AVR's is their power sections and ability to drive real world loads. Unless you have a real fat bank account don't spend a bundle, a few years from now when the rapidly changing world of HT out-dates many of your codecs the resale value will fall thru the floor.
Do invest in a Atmo's DTS-X speaker arrangement. IMO the immersive experience it's well worth the cost and hastel for playback from all sources.
If your interest falls heavily on the music side, I would try to get a device that includes. Auro. Not for it's movie playback, I don't think there's more than a couple dozen Auro movies world wide and I believe its about dead in that aspect. But Auro 2/3D, Auromagic, or whatever they call it today does arguably the best upsampling of stereo sources out there. So if upsampling is something your interested in, you might want to take that into consideration.
Don't let all this stuff send you to the medicen cabinet for Valium. Just play your music or watch StarWars and enjoy life.