It is likely to perform much better technically than AVRs or pre-processors at the same price, and is much smaller. [EDIT: also, and maybe more importantly, balanced outputs are rare if not-nonexistent at this price point.]
Multichannel DSD is also appealing for many, and not easy to get from a computer into an AVR or pre-processor. For that you need a single DAC, or a series of them driven by the same clock, e.g., via Toslink with the RME Digiface USB. And then you're limited to DSD64, whereas this unit appears to support DSD128 in native mode (although nb this is usually not possible on the Mac without a driver from the manufacturer, which I'm not expecting here).
You can output 7.1 or 5.1.2 Atmos from any Mac with the speaker channels assigned in Audio MIDI Setup. Any decoding needs to be done in software (the native Apple suite can do Atmos; VLC, Kodi can do Dolby Digital). In theory, you can also create an aggregate device with two of these for a sixteen channel setup, although Atmos configurations in macOS are currently limited to 7.1.4.
You can use Audio Hijack or HQPlayer for DSP. I'm pretty sure Roon also has this sort of functionality.
For HDMI input, you need something like a DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K and an HDMI splitter, and Loopback [EDIT: or OBS Studio for a free solution, though neither is perfect.] But you may be limited to 5.1 with that approach, depending on how many channels of PCM your player supports. Apple TV so far is limited to 5.1.
I won't say all of that is as elegant as an AVR, but it sure is more elegant than a multi-DAC computer setup.