But for now, I just want to make sure I understand the status quo correctly. MakeMKV still doesn't rip 4K/UHD Blu-rays using this Pioneer drive.
No software in the world (MakeMKV included) can rip UHD content from this drive. MakeMKV (specifically LibreDrive library) should support this drive relatively soon. No firmware update would be required.
Just wanted to bump this and say, thank you Mike for adding UHD support to these Pioneer drives! Just purchased MakeMKV to support your efforts on this. Can now finally keep my 4K Blu-Ray collection on the home media server.