Thats weird. My 14 has always shifted much better than my old 05 ever did. And it got even smoother when I upgraded it to the slipper assist clutch that the newest bikes come with stock. I will say that I almost always run the bike in Touring mode as I like the improved throttle input accuracy, and that does provide with smoother throttle control, but dont see how the drive mode would affect shifting per se. When I have switched to Sport mode in the past I dont remember that the shifting ever seemed to suffer. Never tried turning off TCS. Not sure what that would do.
I suspect that one area that does vary from bike to bike is how much clutch drag there is when the clutch fully disengaged. As an example, on my 05 I always got the loud FJR kerchunk when shifting from neutral into any gear, no matter how long I waited with the clutch pull in. On my 2014, most of the time it just snicks into gear, even first thing in the mornings after a cold start in neutral. And sometimes when standing still too long with the clutch pulled in, it is hard to get it into gear unless I rock the bike forward or back a little, which indicates that the gear shafts are completely stopped. Clearly that bike has complete disengagement.
Also, how far out people position their levers will impact how much disengagement there is when pulled in fully. Clutch drag will directly affect shifting as the gears are always somewhat loaded unless rpm and road speed are exactly matched.
