Agree with you Pyrrho,
it's important to highlight that on the HDMI realm there are several OPTIONAL FEATURES,though. That means it's up to the manufacturer to adopt them or not. One good example is the Pioneer 1017 AVR (among several others, ranging between the mid to low end models) as it's equipped with HDMI, but it's a VIDEO SWITCHER ONLY; so in that case, an additional digital coax and/or digital optic cable will always be necessary to get the audio out.
Regards, Chuck.