I have 5.1 - M60s/VP150/QS8s and a Hsu VTF-3R. If by "rears" you mean the rear surrounds in a 7.1 config, no I don't have that.
I've heard it's possible to get a 1400 w/o PLII from an unauthorized online discounter. However that was some time ago. My guess is most of the 1400s in the distribution chain now have PLIIx. Search the recent postings on www.avsforum; maybe they have an idea.
If you're going to run 6.1 or 7.1, PLIIx definitely makes sense.
I was initially planning on 7.1, but a couple of things changed my mind to 5.1. I've ended up doing more music and less HT, and there's no widely available discrete 6 or 7 channel material. I listened to how well PLII reconstructed 5.1 from stereo, and overall it's not great, so figured stereo to 7.1 would be no better. Some material is very good and others is very flat. I guess that's really no different from a stage-oriented vs surround-oriented discrete 5.1 mix. But PLII can't magically remix the material, and errs on the side of naturalism rather than force surround into existance. I think that's the right design decision, but a lot time PLII doesn't produce much surround.
If you're doing more HT with recent movies, quite a few have 6.1 and 7.1 discrete soundtracks, and likely many more will in the future. I could definitely see the benefit of 6.1 or 7.1 there.
