Hello bcrudisill
I understand that you are looking for firmware updates on the modem, your Cable Operators (MSOs) have complete control of what cable modem/gateway hardware they will allow installed and the firmware it uses, this is because they own the coaxial cable that is connected to the ARRIS (SB8200) even for the modem owned by the customer, because of that the Firmware updates are pushed by them, and any update needed as well. Any associated firmware updates are automatically deployed by the cable operator. This is not an ARRIS only implementation, but the required implementation of any cable device manufacturer.
The logs are Values read by technicians from the internet provider end, since the logs are what the coaxial cable transmits and the log screen on the router is the translator so can be easily read by them, the coaxial cable is owned by the Internet service provider, I wouldn't be able to tell you what that means.
If your Event Log is reporting a high volume of errors, this would indicate a potential CMTS signal issue.
Hope this is helpful.