Oh sorry, I thought we were talking about why there is so little interest in low-budget surround mixing. I must be on another page. 
Mattias, with all due respect: What is the point of your posts? To me it looks like you are trying to intimidate Chris.
Probably because it doesn’t have a lot of application compared to stereo mixing.
I was just responding to why HDMI might not be more commonly used.
wtf is wrong with you?
Of course you did.
Well my tests were more confusing than enlightening.
Things may be complicated by my computers connecting into a kvm with hdmi so I can share my monitors, mouse and kb between an internet machine and my studio machine.
So in ASIO4all control panel I see 3 devices…2 of which appear to be the 2 monitors but they don’t show any channel count at all, they are just a single device with on or off.
So I open up Reaper for a test (because it takes a few seconds not 30-40 like Cubase) I can see outs 1and 2 that look active and then up to 12 all labelled as spare and I see this for both devices. So I’m thinking maybe the spare outs are the hdmi possible channels but they aren’t fully active because only the monito 2.0 is connected…sort of promising so far.
I assign the outs and open a test tone…the sine wave I play sounds like a really buzzy saw over my monitors little speakers. Windows audio doesn’t do that so there seems to be some issue with the asio4all and hdmi combo.
Then I open Cubase…in Cubase there is no sign of these spare outs at all…only the 2. I have no idea why one DAW would see a different set of outs with the same driver.
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To clarify, I was only questioning why HDMI isn’t commonly used (or attempted to be used) by non-professionals, considering many of them would already own the necessary components.
@Grim Thanks for going to the trouble! This does indeed sound promising, and at the very least seems to confirm that a HDMI device needs to be plugged in before ASIO4ALL can see the port. Now we just need someone with an AVR… 
I understand that now, but it wasn’t clear when I made my first comment. You mentioned that only later.
As for the main topic I wish I could help, but I don’t have an HDMI equipped device to test with.