Sean, I agree with what you are saying, I use HDMI only because it seems to cut down on my rats nest of cables, I have been unable to see a real difference in picture quality between HDMI and component. I have the Denon 3910 as well as the 2200 and have not seen better picture quality on any other models I've looked at. In fact they are so sharp it will be difficult for me to justify going to HDDVD in the future.
However in my case I've found that upscaling to 720p in my setup has provided a better overall picture.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.