I have seen very few AVRs that needed a hard reset, other than doing that as the recommended first step when they came out of the box but I have mostly sold Denon and a few Marantz, so I can't really comment on personal experiences with the other brands. Denon used to have a web gui that allowed saving the config file and loading it after a hard reset, which not only made that process much easier, it also allowed using the gui during setup. For dealers who had the luxury of 'cookie cutter' system design, setting up an AVR was a matter of minutes and now, it requires wading through the menu in great detail because the option to use the gui is gone- has been for at least five years.
I have reset far fewer AVRs than power disconnections- I lean on the latter as my first step.