I would imagine that any replacement would have to exceed the original price of the 1070 by a fairly large percentage.
If they had a receiver that was a lot more than the Model 1070's $899, you get back to the range where a separate processor and a Model 7075 don't cost much more.
But I do wonder what they could do with an existing platform and if it is even worth the effort and costs. While I do not think the 970/1070 was based on another platform, one of the things that did appeal to me at the time was the simplicity of the product while maintaining a great sounding unit.
The Model 1070 was designed from the ground up by Outlaw and Eastech, as were the Model 950 and Model 1050. Te Model 970 simply removed the 1070's amps. A receiver based on an existing platform would be putting their name on somebody else's receiver (something they may not be interested in doing at this point) unless they tried to add amps to the Model 978. Doing that would mean either leaving enough room in the 978's chassis to support those amps or transplanting the 978's guts into a larger chassis to make room for the amps.