Doug, great review!! You are right on. After my bad experience with Denon I got a Yammie 2500 for a 90 day test period. It's a great receiver but I also highly prefer the 990 over it.
The biggest issue I had was that the 2500 was WAY underpowered. Like you said, Yamaha claims 130 X 7 but that is way off. Comparing the 2500 and my Adcom @ 125 X 5, the Yamaha is more like 65 X 5, and 30 X 2.
Just my .02 cents!