While there’s a few of us that embrace 21st century workflows, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. It’s probably not incorrect to assume that the vast majority of even TOTL arrangers are played by folk with little interest in MIDI 2.0, handshaking with control surfaces, digital mixers etc.!

You are expecting a huge investment from Yamaha to promote features that at best would appeal to 5% of their customer base. In these troubled economic times, I wouldn’t fault Yamaha for pausing on further hardware progress, especially as they already have a considerable lead already.

We often conflate progress with computers with progress for keyboards. Nothing could be further from the truth. Computers, tablets, smartphones, these are produced by the hundreds of millions and generate billions in profits. Arrangers, OTOH, sell in thousands at best and make obviously far less. So the R&D budget is tiny. That they are as advanced as they already are is astounding! But expecting parity with progress of an industry thousands of times more profitable is pie in the sky, I’m afraid...

Keyboards were still using SCSI long after the computer industry dropped it. Same with USB 1, then USB 2.0, now 3. And don’t get me started about data pipes to transfer samples into an arranger!

We are a tiny subset of a tiny niche of a tiny total market. We’re lucky they even make them!