why the best brands dont use hdmi?

Anthem is promising HDMI switching upgrades in the next few months, the Denon flagship receiver has HDMI switching -- others will follow. I think many manufactureres have been waiting to see how the connectivity merry go round would shake out.

You don't have to send audio through HDMI.

That's not exactly true. HDMI allows you to take the video signal from your
DVD player in digital bypassing the video DAC's. Currently, your DVD player
converts the signal to analogue, then your display converts it back to digital
and back to analogue again. With HDMI, the signal is only converted once.

Similar with audio, HDMI -- as well as FIREWIRE -- can allow you to take an
SACD or DVD-A signal from your transport in digital using one cable and
HDMI has enough bandwidth and is capable of carrying both the High Rez
audio and video signal all in one cable.

So, it is a more elegant solution, a more convenient solution, but also can be
a more effective solution. Reports are that using HDMI, people are getting
higher quality video. Higher quality than component.

I don't know if HDMI is being used for audio yet. Whether it will sound better
than FIREWIRE or better than using 6 analogue interconnects will likely
depend on many factors.

I believe some players are using a combination of HDMI for video and
FIREWIRE for high rez audio.

That's pretty ridiculous. You cannot pass SACD or DVD-A through SPDiF and people are reporting better video quality with HDMI. I don't know that anyone is using HDMI for audio yet. Some players are offering Firewire for high rez audio and either HDMI or DVI for video. A lot of what he says there is speculation; this may happen, that may happen, might be, etc. Mostly, it seems to be a shot at "Joe HT," who wants one cable, but Firewire is one cable versus the 6 cables you currently need for SACD and DVD-A, so just because something is good for this hypothetical "Joe HT" doesn't automatically make it bad.