Are we talking about the same Nick here:
The thing about "down sampling" can be tricky. If most do it with 48 kHz, then for those who do 96 kHz they might conveniently tell you they don't down sample when actually they do, if you feed it with 24/176, 24/192 or higher such as many flac, wave, dsd files available on line.
To me it is a moot point because it is proven that if processing power is limited, it would be best for the manufacturer to go with 48 kHz instead of sacrificing something else more important. It is however, seemingly impossible to get many Audiophiles or even just Audioholics such as me, to willingly accept down sampling to 48 kHz. That's the same idea as trying to get me to accept Yamaha's THD+N anomalies Gene found on the CX-A52 and now the RX-A6A. I know it would not make any audible difference to me, but I won't go for either one, not until the A53 get tested and got verified that issues have been addressed successfully