It is confusing until we see the different seats in person.
I reckon the best way to approach this is to think "the more lines of stiching the more advanced the seat".
Have a look at these (ignore the perforated leather) - these are the Sport Seats that come standard on the M5:
Note that there is only one line on the back surface instead of three.
There are a number of possibilities for the lack of buttons on the centre console:
- The cars in Paris were pre-production models so the buttons/seats could be mismatched and/or nonfunctional.
- The cars in Paris had configurations that are not available in real life, e.g. Multifunction seats (4MA) without the adjustible bolsters (488). In reality if you order 4MA you automatically get 488.
- In theory, you could have sport seats and just specify the side bolsters as an option (that's what it looks like in the photo above).
- It could be that the Multifunctionality is now transferred solely to I-drive
The bottom line is you have to decide whether you want to fork out the extra money for the Multifunction seats. JohnH has decided not to, I have decided to go with them - it's a matter of personal preference.