Yes Steve, this is what I was told. I do not pretend it is factory information, but things I was told one day (when the K line went out, BMW organized bike trials at the various dealers with a large range of bikes. They were supervised by a bunch of BMW corporate people, most of them for taking orders... and one more "senior" or marketing. He was him who told me that seeing I used an R65 and what I wrote above is my recollection of this.) I was, and I still am surprised because it make no industrial sense to postpone an engineering mod for which you have spent a lot of money and engineering manpower. And I though strange that the new models, if engineered to use the "new engines" had to be engineered "backward" for production... But, you know...
At that time, as an engineer, I was astonished by the K bikes, but as I was dead broke, I preferred to discuss with the BMW guys instead of riding the unaffordable bikes...