Yeah, that button is pretty tricky. On my X500 2k6 I had to hold it for 3-5 seconds. But somehow on x500 2k8 I had to push it 3-5 times to turn that light off.
Now about the tires - I'm not sure about the sites, but I'm sure about the tires.
If your tire wears off quickly it's actually a good thing. You see, if you have a hard rubber on tire, it won't wear off quickly, BUT it means, that because it's hard, it will take much more time to get hot. Now when the tire is hot, it becomes sticky, so it "sticks" to the road. By the way, this is the reason you see all that F1 racers slip on the start, which burns the tires a little bit. They loose some time on it, as they stay still while slipping and they loose some tire on it, but it make their tires hot and gives them better handling right at the start.
BUT, 3 tires for 4k miles is too much. Why did you have to change? My be you had low air pressure and that's the reason the wear off?
Now when you go and buy a tire, I can recommend Pirelli Diablo. It has pretty soft rubber so they catch the road fast. If you want something harder, you can go with Bridgestone. They will last a little longer, and they're not too hard as well. Tried Michelin with B&W 250. They are pretty good too.
Anyways, don't try to save a few bucks on the tires. It's the only thing that really matters. Had a friend, which took some cheap tires. First little rain took him down on really low speed and straight road. He was lucky not to get too much injuries, but the bike was dead.