After a couple of emails to Logitech Customer Service, the rep indicated that their technical dept. will look at a firmware upgrade to permit a "state swap" type of function. (Initially they offered the "shielding the controller signal while pushing the ON or OFF button to sync the controller with the system" work around. Brilliant..))
We'll see....
If that does not occur, I will have to tell them that their sophisticated software-driven universal remote is less useful than the "dumb" controller furnished by DirecTV. That unit could care less about the state of the system, as it has hard ON and OFF buttons. I know that it is really only concerned with the video and audio systems and is not as versatile as the Harmony.
For now, I have given the DirecTV unit to the wife, as she is too electronically challenged to manage pushing a button on the Harmony while shielding the signal with her hand..........