Every time people say separates, I would think about separate power supply, preamp and power amp that's in a conventional, traditional, old fashion sense. I understand why people call a so called AVP, or AVC a "separate" component but then people need to understand that if an AVR is not "separate", neither is an AVP that is really just an AVR minus the power amp. So if integrated amp = preamp + power amp ≠ "separate component", then an AVP = AV processor + Preamp ≠ "separate" either
. Also, it is easy for anyone to understand AVPs are very complicated device with numerous parts, compare to preamps and power amps, with many hardware that can fail, and software/firmware that can be buggy. Anyway, this is just for argument sake so please feel free to debate but do not attach.
Arguments aside, imo it is sort of a new myth that nice guys such as TLSG has been pushing, that AVRs are bad because... and AVPs are the way to good because....reliability blablabla. The fact is, for normal use, the part that would fail most often first in an AVR are the AVP part, not the internal amps. All of my previously own AVR including the entry level and primitive RX-V659, AVR-3805, AVR-4308, AVR1912 that I have given to friends and family members are still fully functional yet incidentally the only minor issue I have ever has was a touch volume dial on an AVP, the AV7005. I have also installed an older SR7009 that many would say run hot without external cooling, that's been running quite a few years too and is also 100% trouble free.
That being said, I do think for AVR users, it is a good idea to use at least one 10 mm fan to provide additional cooling if their units just for extra safety/reliability margin.