While I understand the idea behind pure direct, I also understand the reality of room acoustics. Putting a receiver in the pure direct mode is one way to skin a cat. But that cat skinning will result a less optimum result when room acoustics are taken into consideration. Bypassing a receivers video circuits is only helpful if those circuits are poorly shielded. We have no evidence that is the case with Yamaha receivers. What we do know is most rooms are not set up acoustically for good sound, and most people do not understand room acoustics enough to grasp how important it is. Hence why they brush aside its importance in favor of a direct mode, which has yet to prove it improves the sound. There is no doubt that taming peaks in modal frequencies(below 200hz) does improves the audio. That is the area where the room is louder than the direct output, and why the direct mode is less beneficial in that area.

Personally, I would rather go for the set up that produces the best sound, than one who's audibility is dubious at best. We are not talking about skinning cats, we are talking about getting the best sound from thus set up.

The importance of this is far from splitting hairs. It is only splitting hairs if you do not have a good understanding of room acoustics, and the role it plays in getting the best sound from your equipment.