A downgrade from 255 -- Why was Quick Release removed?

Just use a knife blade to release the pin, its a simple job. You don't need a separate tool.

Save money to make them money and move people to more £ epix/fenix

Artificially engineered model differentiators

There’s no release pin in the band that came with my 955. I have to use a knife to remove the band that came with the watch. 

That's just damn weird!  I assumed there was one as my 255 original band had it.

So 255 > 955 in this regard. OP edited.

I'm not Garmin, but I guess the Quick Release pin was not included with 955/965 because they are "compatible" with Quickfit bands, where the release latch is in the band, not the pin (and Quickfit bands cannot be used with Quick Release pins). But what I'm wondering is why they didn't include a Quickfit strap with 955/965 then. I guess they want to differentiate between the Fenix/Epix line (and do minor cost-cutting).

The fr 945, 955, 965 have never had quick fit or quick release bands while the 245,255 do have qr.  What I heard years ago is there was a concern that with QR on the larger fr9xx devices, it wouldn't be as secure.  Quick Fit might be better and that's what you see on the fenix devices.