You're correct.. however a manufacture as big as Pioneer/Onkyo should have put that mind. I read another user on Amazon who bricked his Pioneer receiver during update.. so this appear to happen a lot.

I tried snooping on my Wifi, as the receiver connects to my Wifi everytime even when it is bricked .. it connects to Pioneer's website and identifies itself as 'Pioneer VSX-LX303 EC4945' .. It is also always trying to connect to Spotify!

So you're saying the ONLY way is to return it and replace it with a new one? No other way to force the update manually?