IIRC Nelson Pass himself has stated the "transition" is seamless, and has expressed dismay at audiophiles who seem to expect some kind of "kathunk" on the cross into class AB territory.
The high bias isn’t just so that the first X Watts are "pure class A" - it’s so that the class AB watts sound better.
IMO you’re much much better off this way than with a lower power pure class A amp that will be running hard and risk clipping during peak demands. 84dB sensitivity at 4 ohms generally means 81dB per Watt (84dB being at TWO watts). That’s extremely low efficiency.
I've run high bias AB SS amps at higher volumes, and never experienced any discernible transition or the like to give me pause.

