Matt, your documentation on this needs a minor adjustment.
"Notes on exporting maps with opacity to Navico devices
As mentioned above, opacity is compatible only with Navico devices running the NOS operating system, which effectively means HDS generation one units or later (including Elite HDI units)."
The full transparency options are only available on NOS operating systems. The Elite HDI runs under a separate OS and has support for only the -1, 0, and 255 values (no partial transparency). All values between 1 and 254 are interpretted as 0 on that unit.