I just want to report that I managed to revive both the Maestro and EWS64 XL, thanks to forum members gerwin, stojke and elianda.
The solution for the Maestro was a single EEPROM reprogramming and re-init. (with overriding PnP configuration as suggested, forcing all settings from file instead)
The EWS64 took at least 4 EEPROM reprogrammings (I don't have the slightest idea why) and it had to be isolated as a single sound card in a bare system with only a video card as company. But in the end, it could successfully initialize codec, synth, MPU401... with native utilities (ewsmixer, ewsinit, ewscfg)
The only issue that remains is quite a mystery - the card is not enumerated at POST anymore as an EWS64 XL but as a simple "PnP card". It is sort of cosmetic, and I might be able to amend it as elianda has already dumped the EEPROM/ROM contents from a working EWS64 XL for me (big thanks!)
"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."