Don't count out switching to CD or TAPE2 or THEREMIN or whatever unused input you might have.

My own experience with switching to another input is this: my gf doesn't care for any remote more complicated than a DirecTV remote, and that cannot turn most AVRs on and off. Over the years we have used two different Yamaha receivers. Each one was on for about five years, except for power interruptions. I replaced the old one with an even older one and everything works just fine.

And yes, you caught it: you can't switch the Yamaha to another input with the satellite remote. We actually just leave it on, on the sat input, all the time.