On second thought, it does depends on the actual implementation of the MMU. if the registers (like 273) have a master reset pin tied to reset, then the statement about register being 0 at boot is actually correct.
I have a progress update, there was a wiring error which prevented the MMU to be enabled, now all boot steps do complete (all 8 status LEDs ON) most of the time, there is serial activity, however the there are still problems with the MMU, ending in boot getting stuck or in a boot loop. Maybe the solution to tie LS670 read enable to /MEN is not quite right, or there are timing issues I have yet to figure out.
//here is a subset of the repeating console messages at boot
RomWBW HBIOS v3.6.0, 2026-04-15
RCBus [RCZ80_z2_mmu_test_cust] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x40D1
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS
LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
SN76489: LEFT IO=0xFF, RIGHT IO=0xFB
RomWBW HBIOS v3.6.0, 2026-04-15
RCBus [RCZ80_z2_mmu_test_cust] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x40D1
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS
LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
SN76489: LEFT IO=0xFF, RIGHT IO=0xFB
RomWBW HBIOS v3.6.0, 2026-04-15
RCBus [RCZ80_z2_mmu_test_cust] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x40D1
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS
LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
SN76489: LEFT IO=0xFF, RIGHT IO=0xFB
RomWBW HBIOS v3.6.0, 2026-04-15
RCBus [RCZ80_z2_mmu_test_cust] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x40D1
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS
LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
SN76489: LEFT IO=0xFF, RIGHT IO=0xFB
SIO0: IO=0x80 8440 MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 8440 MODE=115200,8,N,1
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC
IDE0: NO MEDIA
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT
CH0: IO=0x3E NOT PRESENT
CH1: IO=0x3C NOT PRESENT
FP: IO=0x00 SWITCHES=0x00
RomWBW HBIOS v3.6.0, 2026-04-15
RCBus [RCZ80_z2_mmu_test_cust] Z80 @ 7.372MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x40D1
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS
LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
SN76489: LEFT IO=0xFF, RIGHT IO=0xFB
SIO0: IO=0x80 8440 MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 8440 MODE=115200,8,N,1
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC
IDE0: NO MEDIA
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT
CH0: IO=0x3E NOT PRESENT
CH1: IO=0x3C NOT PRESENT
FP: IO=0x00 NOT PRESENT
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