Is Montage M still lacking a transpose indicator on the front panel?

Yes and No

Yes for any change of octave - octave is changed by pressing left/right button

Octave = 0 - means no octave change and the two octave/transpose keys are unlit.
they remain unlit even if semitone changes have been made
Octave = +1 - right octave/transpose key is solid red, left is unlit
Octave = -1 - left octave/transpose key is solid red, right is unlit
Octave >1 - right octave/transpose key blinks red, left is unlit
Octavbe < 1 - left octave/transpose key blinks red, right is unlit

No for any change of transpose in semitones - semitone is changed by using
SHIFT and left/right button.

So if the right button is RED or blinking it indicates the octave has been increased above zero.
If the left button is RED or blinking it indicates the octave has been decreased below zero.

But there is no indication at all if a semitone change has been made as far as I can tell.

I would have preferred that one of the light be lit or blinking to indicate ANY change from standard to make it CLEAR that you are not at baseline. Then it is rather simple to check to see what the octave/semitone value is and reset one or both to zero as desired.

Good suggestion for IdeaScale. Might be one of those things that fell through the cracks and should be easy, and non-harmful to fix in an update.

It does make sense. Yamaha is not viewing this as a performance board.
They expect any transpose activity to be built into the performance or live set.

I do understand their stubbornness given the fact that they completely missed the market with the original Montage and had to completely re-invent the product in firmware.

They are a stubborn bunch of people, if nothing else 🙂

It does make sense.

Not sure I agree with that.

Yamaha is not viewing this as a performance board.
They expect any transpose activity to be built into the performance or live set.

But the front panel changes are for the instrument itself and NOT for the performance. They affect ALL performances. The values you change here are the same values you change on the Utility -> Sound display.

I don't see how it makes sense to have semitone changes keep the buttons dim - then you don't have a visual clue that things have been changed.

Yeah I don't agree either. I was just expressing the thinking I would take as a Yamaha Employee with my own sarcasm.