Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

In my way of thinking source components are a better natural home for the kinds of content oriented services that often change their terms / offerings.

While I certainly don't deny that certain amounts of convenience can be had by incorporating an Ethernet port for firmware updates, the overhead of having to build in circuitry and code to make these seldom used options a reality are not enough to make me say it is that much better than a USB connection.

Finally if your desire is to have some kind of "digital hub" it is my contention that such a product is fundamentally different than an audio- centric pre-pro. Beleive me I know that the range of products that purport to enable you to stream content to multiple zones in your home in relative fidelity / ease are far larger than the handful of products that actually fulfill this promise. I doubt those are waters the Outlaws would currently find profitable to dive into...