You're not understanding midi tracks. There are embedded commands in them that set the instrument patch as soon as you revert to the beginning and hit play. You can change patches all you want anywhere in the middle of the song but as soon as you take it back to the beginning the first command that is embedded in that midi track is changing it to piano.

Then to really confuse you some downloaded midi files will have program changes imbedded in the middle of a file like going from an AP to an EP on the bridge then back to AP.

You see all that that by highlighting that track and opening up the event editor and you'll see what's there. You may have noticed volume changes too, halfway through the song you change a volume slider to get a better mix and yet start over and that slider reverts to where it was. Same thing, there's a CC7 volume command embedded in the track probably right next to the program change command.

Be careful about simply stripping out those CC7's because if the author of that midi file was good then those CC7's are what creates the overall dynamics of the song. Strip those out and the thing is going to play at the same level all the way through. Once you're comfortable with this then sure strip those out and using the new node based automation you can draw in your own dynamics.

Bob

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