I think Yamaha has gone a long way in trying to make there keyboards usable for most. We all know it would be impossible to bring out a different keyboard for different Countries so the free packs now go a long way into helping with this problem.
Respecting your point, allow me to disagree. And I will disagree for three main reasons:
1) The possibilities do not cost but it is a matter of the will of the company, and this was shown by OS Version 2.0 of Genos, where suddenly Yamaha increased the RAM from 1.7 giga to 3 giga. And I wonder: What is easier? Increase Ram or add features like different time signature with each variation, different tempo speed with each different variation, ability to create Major Min in Intro & Ending, onboard sample editing capabilities, User Articulation capabilities, extensive Sound Editing capabilities and more. These cost absolutely nothing (trust me, especially when we are talking about a company like Yamaha) and this is amply proven by Korg being the only one (over time) to offer literally EVERYTHING and much more (in all these features) even on a cheap and old Pa300. This is also the reason why Korg is preferred in countries like mine (Greece) as well as Turkey, and all Arab and Balkan countries.
All this may not be useful at all for many here, but there are musical cultures (like the countries I mentioned above) where they require special capabilities to be realized.
I am giving you an example to understand the complexity of what I am describing. Listen to this demo which is from the professional Greek set I created for the Korg Pa Series and has been out since 2018.
https://soundcloud.com/sokratis-1974/stankena?in=sokratis-1974/sets/paradosiaka&si=99459b65775a4b309094073d55052d06&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharingSo here we have a style with first time signature 13/8 and the second time signature 11/8, as well as with a different tempo speed in each variation. This could not be achieved except in Korg and recently in the Event. Previously, even Ketron did not offer all these possibilities (in models SD9, or Audya) but the company heard all these problems from users and implemented them in the Event.
Of course, this is impossible to achieve in Genos. This can only be achieved on the PSR A5000.
Will you tell me now why I don't buy the A5000? I have absolutely no reason as well as find it unacceptable to have to pay again for a new instrument for features that should be self-explanatory for a workstation (as Yamaha calls the Genos) Consequently, if you don't need them, it doesn't mean that other people don't need them either.
Also, Ketron, a very small company, managed to a huge extent to reach Korg in many possibilities recently with the Event, but again Korg holds the lead because it continues to release new instruments with particularly extensive capabilities (such as the new Pa5x) regardless of any bugs and omissions that are observed which I believe is only a matter of time to be resolved via update.
And it turns out that if Yamaha wants to it can do whatever it wants (in our case) with the relatively new Oriental Model Yamaha A5000 where the company has given users several of the features I mentioned above, and as we know both the A5000 and the PSR SX series are 100% based on the Genos engine. So, I clearly think that it is the commercial policy of the company to distribute capabilities according to the taste of marketing.
2) Both Yamaha and Korg call these models (Genos, Pa5x) as "Digital Workstations". But the truth is that only Korg has the right to say this because it is the only company that in its models (and especially the Pa5x) represents 100% the real concept of a workstation where the purpose is to carry out a 100% musical production ( or any other musical process - he saw the creation of styles with extended features that I mention above, extended sampler features and many more) without the slightest use of any third-party software which in many cases actually has to be purchased.
3) The packages you mention, let me tell you, are too poor to cover even the most basic needs of my country and many other countries. Personally, I have no problem at all as I am lucky enough to be a producer of packages and professional sets myself (at Korg). But it is completely unimaginable to me when, for example, I took Genos in my hands for the first time (in 2018) and to my great surprise I found that even an octave that someone wants to change to a sound of the style (the simplest thing), has to turn the style into a midi file, take a picture of it in a
daw (Cubase, etc.) change the octave he wants through the midi sequence, re-export the midi file, convert it back to a style (.STY) import again to the instrument and alas if there was a separate major and minor version in some Intro or Ending.. We are talking about a real (headache) that requires third-party software in a really, complicated way. And I would like to ask you if you see all this (normally). Anyway, I don't see them as normal or logical either.
You will also ask me why I kept Genos and why I am still working on it? I won't hide from you that I have thought too many times to sell it, but the main reason is that I have not yet prepared the Event for my personal needs because it requires a lot of time. It took Genos two years to complete the work I wanted for my personal package, which of course we must emphasize that the above time was due to the many obstacles from the limited possibilities I mention above, which makes your life difficult and particularly demanding a lot of time and effort. I hope the company will see these at some point because if they want to it is very easy (not to say ridiculously easy) for a company (colossus) like Yamaha.
I should finally clarify that in my personal package that I have created for my needs in Genos, it does not require extensive musical needs like those I mentioned above (because I play in hotels) so I need some much simpler and not complex Greek styles as well as some international styles which I have specially created based on my taste.