You and me both. With all the different design/engineering and manufacturing in the industry, it can be surprisingly difficult to find truly diverse offerings to hear.
That alone speaks volumes, at least to me. Not sure what that dealer is doing, but network topology doesn’t sound like their strongest suit,. I am impressed you made the decision to go with the Bartok, even without a strong network playback showing, inasmuch as network playback is one of its key value propositions. I look forward to reading about your in-home experience.