Ooh, that looks pretty bad. Didn’t realise micro suedes could do that, always thought they were inoffensive to other inanimate objects but those photos prove me wrong!
It’s a given that suede is very difficult to maintain or repair, I don’t actually think it’s physically possible to restore them once they start to wear. Unfortunately I think that the only option is to buy a new pair and store them away in a proper headphone case to prevent the earpads from getting damaged or worn.
I haven’t heard the KPH30i, unfortunately they’re not for sale in the UK. I was wondering whether this was another one of those hype headphones but judging from the recent comments about the new Clear variant I am guessing there must be some credibility to the praise they are receiving from the audiophile community. I own the Porta Pros with Yaxi pads and they’re ok, they are good for what they are but they can’t compete with other headphones in my collection.
In the meantime I’ve been experimenting further with pad swapping on the HM5s and for me the Brainwavz Micro suedes win hands down versus all the other pads. I find that wearing an angled pad for example you lose some of that warmth and richness you refer to, which is definitely a trait this headphone has over the M40X.
I hope you can find a solution to your pad problem, pardon the pun! 