I am having a hard time seeing what the value would be other than a little more power and better automated room correction.
It's fine if you want to return it, my Onkyo runs fine after a year even with the occasional clicking. I dropped the pre-pro upgrade idea when I realized that the highest I've ever listened to was 83dB peak, and that was at an extremely unpleasant volume for me. That 83 dB at the seating position roughly works out to a power output of...1 Watt/channel.
I agree with TrevorM about buying nice or buying twice. But I don't think there's anything wrong with having a starter AVR for a few years, make a wishlist of all the things you want to add, and then check the marketplace in a few years to see what scratches that itch.
