No way would a responsible company make option #2. Do you have any idea what batteries cost? You can set the backlight options up to 99 seconds. Now a reasonable suggestion would be to add more time to that option. I don't think that the remote should just sit there on with the backlight illuminated. The wear and tear that would put on the screen and remote is too much.

You totally misunderstood him on #2; he (we) would like an option to have the lighs automatically turn on when any button is pressed and then time-out normally.
This is NOT a lot to ask for.

BTW: It is reasonably obvious that there is software control of the backlighting; when you enter the config menus the backlight turns on automatically. I bet a simply firmware change to add the above option could be done easily if they wanted... why not?

You are correct. I couldn't have said it any better. why not a firmware update.
Almost everything is updatable by firmware these days.

You'd still chew your batteries away in probably less than two months.