Exactly. As I was reading through the thread this was all that was in my mind. Surely these 'improvements' are added to convince born-agains that they can quickly get back into biking after a 30 year break. And to add three or four grand to a bike price/profit for the dealers/manufacturers.
I spoke to 3 BMW dealers recently and all 3 said, that TE was the only spec to buy and if you bought a 'base bike' with heated grips and dash computer, you would never be able to sell it in 3 years time
Codswallop - brain washing at its best
You will have what we have to sell and not what you want to have
Yet everyone is sucked into it, time and time again