I remember hearing about that meeting. I lived in Memphis at the time and worked for a cottonseed company. CaseIH was also looking at the round bale concept like Deere. CaseIH listened to the ginners, that it would cost too much for the gins to convert over to ginning the round bales, they wanted modules. The mills also were afraid of the plastic wrap getting into the cotton. A CIH dealer in Tennessee had come up with the module building picker concept, and had built some himself.
John Deere was arrogant enough that they didn't listen to the ginners, and a lot of people thought they were crazy at the time. The first JD baling pickers I saw demoed could barely pull themselves onto the turn row. But, JD knew they had enough market share that the growers would buy their product and the gins would have to adapt.
Now that the change has been made, it works well. Being able to haul the round bales on a flatbed semi trailer vs a dedicated module truck makes a big difference in transportation expense, and the tightly wrapped roll stands up better to the weather.