Anyway, one thing I noticed was that the said receiver was using a ridiculous 45W when in standby mode (vs 55W when on).
It became a bit pathetic was that when I called Onkyo to ask them what was the expected standby use, and they were unable to tell me (after 2 calls and two techs). They then sent me to a support center that just would not help me without me sending my receiver in for repair when I wasn't even sure it was broken. They, too, were unable to tell me if 45W for standby was conceivably normal.
After adding Xmas in the mix and another trip where I wasn't home to take care of this, I called amazon late January (two months after purchase), explained the problem and they agreed to just send me another unit for free so that I could see whether 45W was normal or not, and return the old or new unit with a prepaid label. That was about the best support one could have hoped for (it's worth to note that the receiver went back to $800 in the meantime).

Turns out this was not all for naught, the new receiver registered exactly 0W when in standby. Kudos again to Amazon for outstanding service.