I’ll take the beer if ever meet up!  LOL.  Just glad you got it sorted out.  I went through the same troubles, spare blank USB stick, formatted correctly, multiple failed attempts.  Eventide Support was exceptional in providing support over a weekend however and all fixed using the brand new USB drive that came with the unit (that I never even opened/used until required for the update) on the first attempt!!  I wasted 3hrs trying to troubleshoot before i.e. formatting USB stick on different computers, did I install something wrong? Trying the Network Update? etc.  Nope.  Just needed to use the Eventide USB drive provided with the unit.