I'd expect there's some power-fail handling in the player -- doesn't it update the flash for playlist/song/position for play-on-resume? I wouldn't expect the kernel to know song details like that.

So perhaps it's a hybrid where the kernel can't complete the power-fail handling, because it's waiting for the player process (which doesn't exist). That makes sense to me, because I've also noticed that if I start the car and turn off the ignition before the player has finished booting the kernel and starting the player software, the empeg doesn't drop into standby.