Why is there no mention online, and why was it a surprise to my Yamaha support guy, that the firmware on my new MX61 is 1.02?
Really, that's your question?
Probably (just a guess) the difference between. 1.01 and 1.02 is so small a change it is not worthy of an entire download. A significant change would be a change to 1.10... Often very small changes are not released as downloadable updates...until they've accumulated enough changes. They will wait until there is a significant change to make a downloadable update. No updates were announced, that's why your support guy didn't know.
Another possible reason could be that whomever is tasked with updating the downloads has simply not got around to updating the website.... Yamaha does make over 15,000 items - many of them have updates - could be we are just in that time where there is a new version, and that individual (or team) has not gotten around to posting it.
If the change is deemed significant enough a version will eventually be posted. If they are rolling out of the factory with 1.02 now that is newer than the previously posted downloadable update (v1.01) so you don't have to worry about updating, you already are updated! Would you rather not be? 🙂
Actually, I was hoping to find that I needed an update, given that my MX has such low volume. It was disappointing to find out that I already had the 6db boost.