I tend to disagree. You can get a receiver with HD Audio Decoding, HDMI, and a lot of other features for much less than you can buy a good pre/pro with same features. If you buy used, you'll get even more bang for your buck, even if it does include amplification that you do not use.
Ditto! Using an AVR as a prepro for some channel is a cost effective way to get the best of both world.
Yup! The only thing I wish is that you could totally disable the power amp in a receiver to draw zero electricity.