First off; nice that it came back much better than before. When the sound and everything is so much different i would say there's been damage to the print and/or components - atleast by my logic. So you're in for a lot of fun, i'm loving my Brute!
As to the analog discussion, i would actually argue that Korg is far from impressing. So far all their new ventures into analog has been limited, cheaply designed, poor quality and shown a complete lack of creative drive. Not to mention the absense of anything new or even remotely groundbreaking.
The Mono-series are all extremely limited, nigh unplayable (no MIDI, USB or CV/gate without voiding warantee) with only that touchstrip, built in speakers and poor output ruin the signalpath.
Volca-series have improved the interface/control and has MIDI-in (compared to Monos), but with only headphone out and built in speakers, they're looking to be just as ruined in the signalpath as the Monos. More over the cosmetics seem plagiarised from Rolands old machines - so not even there do they show any intent to do something new and exciting.
MS-20 mini is just a cheaply made reissue of their 35 year old synth, with no attempts at improving or refining their original recipe. People have been asking for this for too long for it to even be called timely. Korg have been dragging their feet, arriving late to the party (let's be realistic; they only started planning the MS-20 mini AFTER Arturia announced the MiniBrute), and used absolutely no money or effort to make the new 1 a quality product - it was slapped together in all haste with cheap components to the extent that the sound came near enough the original.
If you want a nice and exciting analog for the 21st century, you need to be looking at companies like Arturia, Doepfer, Vermona (check their Mono Lancet), DSi, MFB (crap build but good sound indeed), Mg and even Waldorf is doing something more inspired than Korg. And that's not even going 'round all the modular and boutique stuff.
Korg doesn't in any way deserve the praise they're getting for making analog, it's just not nearly good enough compared to the competition. Not to mention they are notoriously bad at maintaining software support for their gear - i have returned more than 1 piece of Korg gear to the store because they dropped support of the very necessary software within 1 year of launch.