You're not taking into account that you're only seeing a very very small fraction of people on these forums reporting the issues. 99% of people without issues aren't on here nor would they have a reason to report issues because they don't have them.
The sky is only falling because you're...
If you have the complete trans failure you'll get a whole Christmas scene of lights & you'll be well aware that something has happened as the most common symptoms are that you have no gears below 6th. Until then you'll probably just get hard shifts and random jerks when it downshifts.
There's...
GST dealers add all this extra BS that nobody wants. As far as FL goes, the doc fees are ridiculous and generally a lot of the dealers are trying to get ADM.
I still stand by my original opinion that Toyota isn't going to simply allow a <$200 part to allow access to the MTS abilities. More than likely you need the panel + some sort of module (if the capability are only those two parts).
Mine had a weird shift today, both times cold. Kinda jerked a little more than normal when shifting to drive from reverse both times. Also got a little hard downshift when moving slowly to a rolling stop. I'm at 7500 with no real prior issues.
I know I'm in the affected range of VINs, so it's...
I honestly don't think Toyota nor Aisin really know which units have debris. That's why you see such a wide range.
I'm in the affected VINs, but haven't had any trans issues as of 6500 miles. I've had what I would call a lurch in the mornings from P to R, but running strong as of now.