We may never know who scuttled the 978 but had it gone into production many folks would have given it a serious look. I think this is particularly true for those folks looking at the Anthem AVM-50v given the similarities between their core feature sets. I recall the 978 was supposed to be around the $1500 and even adding a Outlaw 7900 amp would bring the total to about $5000 which is under the price of the AVM-50v alone.

As far as Anthem's top AVR, it retails for $2000. The 978 with an Outlaw 7125 would be about $2500 and could have influenced some to make the move to separates versus buying Anthem's top AVR. If Anthem isn't the culprit I doubt they are shedding any tears that the 978 is history.

Lastly, I couldn't agree with you more; I have no desire to use an AVR as my sound processor. Made that decision long ago and haven't regretted it.