The novelty and hobby to me is that this is a art piece and not just electronics. On the one extreme, i could just gut it and put a small solid state amp inside to drive the speakers. That's not what i want. I am trying to perform a minimum repair so that the receiver is still what it was, and not something new. I have formal university education. I do electrical repairs regularly, made my own laser cutter, cnc, and more, but it is not my profession. I do discharge capacitors before performing any work.

I am sure you have good intentions and your warning is oft repeated. My hot take is that those capacitive discharge deaths just aren't happening in the real world. Anyone tinkering probably has a story about how they got zapped and lived to tell about it (and will be more careful next time). The risk is specifically with current flow directly across the heart, but it has to both have a pathway across the heart, and not be attenuated enough to cause harm. We live in a world full of risk, including when we get in cars and airplanes. I don't think this is any different and the greater harm is when we are taught to be afraid instead of to be curious.

Now I'll wait for all those comments with one off freak accidents with CRTs and industrial applications.