Ok, after reading a lot of issues (and me having these), I spent a whole day making tests with this unit and I came to a good solution.
First of all, I want to say that I'm one like you, who complained a lot about the bad support from ASUS, and the lak of solutions. I ruined a couple of times my ROG Front base upgrading BIOS and firmwares, to the point of losing the CPU Frequency, the Equializer, and the CPU Levels buttons.
All that i did, is based on my MotherBoard, my BIOS version, and the firmware v48 of the ROG Front Base (RFB).
At this time, there is no need to upgrade the RFB using Q-Connector, that are old instructions, now you can update it connected to de ROG_EXT connector, when you launch the FW updater.
History:
I have a ROG Maximus VII Hero MoBo. I upgraded the BIOS to the Latest 3003 version, and then the RFB to the v48 FW. With this, I lost all that I said above, but there is a simple solution.
1- just upgrade your BIOS and RFB Firmware, you will lose Equializer, cpu freq, and some buttons.
2- Install latest Realtek audio drivers (ROG), and with this, you will recover the equializer.
3- Instal AI Suite III, and you will recover the CPU frequency. Not sure if I recovered that just installing the suite, or after doing the 5-way optimization.
Now, I have mi RFB fully functional.
I think that this could fit many ROG MoBos, Z87, Z97, etc.
Good Luck.