I think that's a question that can't be definitively answered. It can be answered, but any answer will be debated without resolution.

I still see more than one way to interpret the omission of a phono section. One is that they don't care about high performance two-channel audio quality. Another is that they recognize that the quality of phono section that could be included in a product of this type would not offer the sort of performance that a discerning ear and good vinyl setup would deserve, so they omitted it entirely rather than furnish something that was inherently limited.