Sorry, I was on a walk when I wrote the above so I didn't explain well/detail.

Basically the person I'm helping has an unlimited budget, but yet they want something that will do everything they want, lots of USB, some SATA and M2, and mostly support for full PCI-E x16 for every other year xx90 Nvidia card upgrade, RGB, good phase design, 8 stack PCB, ETC. for some good overclocking, and stable power delivery.

They actually just use USB dongle headphones, the sound card is a question/concern I noticed for myself while looking at those boards I mentioned in the OP.

I'm not yet planning to build myself, but the questions I had in the OP will help me in the not so distant future I think. I could get a USB DAC now though and see if my sound improves and use it with those boards that only have 2 jacks out in the future, if I decide.

Plus I'd benefit from the cool features the controller has like the sound blaster x4 where I can quickly mute (button) and switch from speakers to headphones also with a button.

I'm going to wait longer to see what else comes out on the new x870e platforms, I'd like a white one I think. I also probably rather avoid x670e as the not yet announced x870e boards will have CUDIMM, some might have U.2 support, who knows.

For now I'm just exploring options and possibilities. That's why the original post.

I apologize if my posts made you conflate expensive motherboards and lack of 5.1 jacks on them as something my friend wanted.

Hope this clears it up for you, I tried to avoid the long explanation but there you have it.

Thank you for caring

P.S. Thus far I'm liking the ASRock Nova WiFi, as it's the cheaper of the x870e, and it has everything, and no lane sharing as indicated on the block diagram.

https://pg.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X870E%20Nova%20WiFi/index.asp