I'm going to factory reset. If that doesn't fix things, I'm going to buy a fresh one and return this one. If that makes me a scumbag, so be it.

I am interested in this too. Audio doesnt't work, not even after factory reset. Not even after leaving the Mi Box off for some time, then restarting.

But why? Everything is working great and many bug fixes has been solved by this update!

I think you can't do it without messing with bootloader. You risk brick by doing it.