[rbinck]

Hey welcome to the forum, Eric.

The whole idea of video switching really started back in the day when a home theater meant a projector. Projectors had very limited input capability and were usually located many feet from the sources. An A/V receiver with video switching (the first were SD even) allowed a single cable to be run up to the projector. Made sense.

Then marketing kicked in and over time it has become pretty much the standard fair for receivers.