I don’t doubt your experience. Firmware over midi was not uncommon for older equipment because the alternative was swapping out EPROMs if the instrument did no

I don’t doubt your experience. Firmware over midi was not uncommon for older equipment because the alternative was swapping out EPROMs if the instrument did not have an FD drive…and around Y2K, unavailability of older chips could mean replacing sockets or going without (so mostly going without).