afaik even if you RMA the drive, at least mine, the new ones (at least 10 months ago) used the same controller firmware/controller so they had the same issue. on the "is it physically possible to fix the controller issue with a firmware update?" idk, phison would be the only one who can answer that
(good questions tho! i didn't mean to say it is literally impossible just that's what vendors have claimed in the past. i hate everyone involved here. this issue shouldn't exist, like the one i have and many others do and i agree - part of the problem IS microsoft)
yeah ran out of space but i mostly meant like "why are mfgrs lying about this"