Said this earlier in this read already, but the gist of the problem is this...
If you read through the forum threads you can see the amateurish way the Minibrute has been designed and built. Lots of manufacturing/quality issues, a number of questionable design decisions and a few glaring errors.
The missing local on/off mode is a huge error, but the lack of controls on the digital side of the synth make it really tough for them to include local on/off in a way that:
a) is easy for the user to implement
b) won't result in less experienced synth users thinking their Minibrute is broken when in local off mode, which would then result in Arturia getting lots of false repair queries
They really screwed the pooch on this one, that's why I suspect Bruno is keeping very quiet