Here's the thing. Manufacturers do a lot of market research before bringing a product to market. Manufacturing has high costs, they need to be reasonably sure the features in the product will appeal
to buyers. Otherwise, fewer buyers, lost profit.

Contrary to what you might wish was the case, building synths is not a public service. It's a way of making money. Imagine that.

Yamaha's marketing research showed that features like
onboard sampling and sequencers rated dead last in customer needs. The number one requested feature..
better sounds and more of them. Imagine that.

So in developing the Montage, the decision to eliminate
onboard sampling and full-blown sequencing was made.
This reduced development and manufacturing costs.The Montage sold better than Yamaha initially
expected. Imagine that.

Note: "patch memory" certainly does exist on
the Montage. Just as it has on every synth they made.

Imagine that.