Each time a new processor appears on the horizon, the idea of eliminating the tuner comes up. I think the tuner always sticks around because too many people simply expect it to be there. It is a modest cost for something that, if omitted, has the potential to turn off more people than it pleases. Sirius/XM support and HD Radio support seem to be the other half of the question - if you leave AM/FM in, which do you add? Satellite, HD, or both?
I could go either way, ha! But really I'm in the camp where I wouldn't mind them removing it if they came out with a separate tuner that worked with all radio, hd radio, satellite, net streaming etc.
So if outlaw came out with a separate that tuned in all sorts of different types of music from different mediums, then I'd buy it. One of the features I'd like to see is being able to have a tuner that allowed you to store stations in one location for the different mediums. So when I switch to the next preset I may hit my satellite or net radio station or hd radio station. That would be ideal, but probably not realistic. Not that it couldn't be done, but I haven't seen anyone do it. In this scenario I wouldn't need a built in tuner, but that doesn't necessarily bode well for others.