He made the first video about getting the unit from Yamaha back in September:
It's now December, so it's roughly three months since he started the project and over a month since he decided to wait for Yamaha to come up with a FW fix for the SINAD variability among channels, but they did not (two FW updates released since then which did not fix any of the major bugs). I know for a fact that the SINAD issue is unfixable by FW. It's unclear if they can even fix the full scale SPL distortion, Gene also mentioned. The new line of receivers uses newer components, which were never used before, so bugs are unavertable. Unless you want to become a Yamaha beta tester, I would wait for at least another year for new hardware revisions to become available with fully matured FW (I assume it will take some time due to current worldwide components shortages).
Do you really want a 3000$ receiver that behaves like this:
That short was from September 30th, so practically October. It took Yamaha's some time to respond and confirm measurements. It is also true that everything runs slower in Covid world, including communication, information, feedback, updates, etc. It is what it is. Even if there is a "conspiracy" to delay publication after Xmas, so be it. The world of AVRs does not hang on it. If that publication is going to change someone's mind, excellent. Regardless, people will be able to return machines if they are not happy with issues they might discover at home.
Gene's findings and casual posts about audio are not always optimistic. I agree with this, but his impact also depends on how much specific owners or prospective buyers actually care about it. 64dB may be atrocious for some audio purists and enthusiasts, but not for everyone. In the same way, in display threads, 700 nits of brightness may be unacceptable for some HDR enthusiasts, but not for many ordinary folks. There is a broad AVR audience in the world, with different sensitivities, values and needs. You need to accept the idea of diversity of users. That's the world we live in.
There is great thread about all new AVRs/AVPs, here. Highly recommended, with very detailed chronological developments from 2020. I actually posted the link to your initial post
#199 on ASR, so that members have access to this information and try to test their gear or research machines in more granular fashion. Find it in OP. There is a good communication between fora and threads and those who search will find information, test and make up their minds. Advising people not to buy 2020 AVRs is nothing new. In the thread below, we have been saying to people to skip all 2020 and most 2021 models due to immature HDMI transition and patchy boards. We also post links to audio measures, in addition to video features. I have been observing this confusing transition from the CES 2020 onwards and cannot believe the on-going chaos with this gen of devices. Promised myself not to buy anything until 2023, until all major audio and video issues are hopefully ironed out. Fingers crossed. Until then, good luck to those who devide to be brave beta-testers and accept carrots with 5 year warranty