Remember how 64bit was put off and put off for so long until Apple went to 64bit only, then right away PG come out with a BBWin 64bit then the Mac 64bit. If they don't do it soon something unforeseen will push them into it as before where they have no choice.
A away to get more than 255 bars and RealTimeSignatures that will match a DAW.
I wasn't involed, but I'm not surprised.
PGM seem always to be behind the curve, whilst I've always tried to anticipate where the curve will likely next go and to arrange software and to a lesser extent hardware, so that I don't lock myself in anywhere.
The 255 bar limit is probably the ultimate example of PGM's inertia. I'm shocked that they even did it in the first place, never mind that it's still there. It would have been easy and fairly harmless to make it 32k or combine tio items into a single 16-bit word, or even have reserved the value 255 for a "grab another octet" option. Similarly with time signatiures ... the fact that it's possible to make passable workarounds doesn't make it the right way to do things.
I do share your frustration, though I'm sure you're far more frustrated about these things than I.
I do though also have experience with the "Oh [redacted], we really need to fix this, but the work needed is absolutely huge.