I don't understand why that is. I suppose the assumption they are making is that people who want to use the multi channel audio on the HDMI cable would switch it through some sort of processor on the way to the display and extract it there. But it seems like a pretty poor approach to me, given that there are already two HDMI standards in the marketplace and a third on the way. How hard would it be to send the digital audio out on that output? Or supply a second one for that purpose? Or do all the devices that have HDMI outputs also have digital out for audio (so much for the "one cable" approach)and I'm getting tweaked over a non-issue?

Edit:
Fixed spelling errors.