nearly give me a heart attack! MS-shifters??!!!! damn, imagine having to wait five minutes for your shifters to boot up, or having a 5-second delay in shifts because of a mandatory update!

oh!!! you mean microshift! yeah, been using them for many years.
reliable, dependable, less expensive than shimano.
they make various versions.........grip shift, trigger, brifter, bar end.
i think they might also have some basic thumbies, as well.