That place seems to be a trap set up by those Lexicon'philes ready to jump out and bite your head off the monent you mention "Lexicon sucks."
"how many "audiophiles" would set up a system with more than 7.1 channels? "
Audiophiles don't use more than 2 channels. The extra channels are just a by-product of HT, and we sort of just use the multi-channel modes for music since it is there.
I am still waiting for Meridian to upgrade the 565 with DPLII (and fix all the little bugs that still exists,) but I am not going to upgrade to the 568 just to get that feature.