Yamaha AVRs and AVPs are awesome.
At the same time, it is also very cool to use external amps with the AVRs, like your Carver amps and other high quality amps.
I actually just sold a Yamaha RX-A3080 to a client in OKC. And normally, I would tell people that the RX-A3080 should be able to power most speakers at REGULAR volume just peachy.
But this client listens at a much higher UNSAFE volume, which I made the point to him when I came to see him. The volume is so high (he said "above 110dB") that I would have to LEAVE the room because there is no way in hell I would tolerate it. On top of this unsafe volume, he only wants to listen to music in 9CH Stereo Mode DSP. So 9Ch Stereo Mode + Extreme High Volume = Use External Amps Please.
So no doubt, he would have to buy an external high-power amp.
So bottom line, Yamaha makes awesome AVRs. But it is perfectly peachy if you want to use high quality external amps - even though it is not perfectly peach if you listen to unsafe high volume.