The bottom line here is that we live in a world of constantly evolving tech and operating systems, of Androids and iPads and nightly builds. While it may not be laziness that has prevented M from sorting out this important aspect of their systems (they put displays on their loudspeakers to begin with so they must have valued it ?), it certainly does not reflect well on them that there seems to have been next to no development of this feature over cent decades. Maybe it's not seen as important enough but it could be a 'highlight' feature for ease of use of M systems particularly in a family environment.

If they had adopted that attitude with the audio side of things where would they be now?

M

Mostly harmless. Comfortably numb.