I've found that I don't always need all my bots out; if I have them out, I don't always need them all fully upgraded. As such, if I want to be fully outfitted, I accept that I'll have to pay the penalty for it, whether that be in terms of time, slotting, or power choices.
I don't see the above suggestion as at all useful for any MM - I can only see reducing our ability to strategise as a watering-down of the AT, which I would be very much against.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
I agree that the summoning is tedious, however when starting a mission I can summon all my bots, apply the first upgrade to all and usually upgrade 2 bots with the 2nd tier power. I then start the mission and can apply the second upgrade to all the others as I go.
The only worry I would have with your suggestion is that in the tough team missions, I actually ressummon a reasonable amount, and losing all my toggles etc. would be very painful mid fight. ;(
I like the idea of a faster start, but it's a small price to pay for being able to resummon mid fight without losing so much team defense. Losing force bubble could get very nasty mid fight sometimes...when it's the only thing holding those ravening spectral daemons and lords at bay from getting in amongst your henchies 
Hmmm, I could possibly see it being turned into a full nova-esque power (draining 100% of endurance, stopping endurance recovery, long recharge time) but I wouldn't want this at all.
Reasoning? The ability to upgrade mid-mission, on the fly and selectively. Even if recharged, I wouldn't want to have to call all my henchmen back to me to fire off a nova-upgrade because if I'm summoning mid-fight they need to be where they are and keep laying down covering fire.
Case in point yesterday, I was fighting Barracuda (AV, L29) with three teammates (another MM, Brute, Corruptor) and I was frantically staying out of the way of her cone attacks, and making sure everything was spread out and concentrating fire on her.
If I had to pool my henchmen and myself together for an upgrade we would have been easy meat.
So, in conclusion the nova-upgrade would be useful for the start of a mission but little use at other times. Best kept as-is.
As a fellow Bots/FF Mastermind, I feel your pain...and I haven't even got the second upgrade power yet. In practice though, most team mates won't mind hanging about for the time it takes at the start of the mission, for the benefit they're going to get from having the bots around, and personally I've learned to live with the time it takes. If I need a quick summon, I just buff the assault bot and maybe one defender, then go, and buff the others in action (defenders first, then Crosby the suicide bot, then the other drones). I'd say the only thing essential at mission start is to have the AB carrying all the upgrades, simply because of the amount of hurt he can dish out - the drones can get theirs later, if they live that long! At higher levels, they are more useful as ablative armour than as offensive tools. 
As a Bots/FF MM I am getting really annoyed with the length of time it takes to fully buff minions. I understand that this is the deliberate weakness in the set but it is getting very tedious. What I would like to see is a change to at least the lvl 32 power (I can cope with the lvl 6 power just about).
My suggestion is to turn the lvl 32 power into a mini nova like power. Basically what would happen is that when you click the power it will buff all your summoned pets that can normally benefit from the buff, however as a downside it uses 50-75% of end and takes twices as long now to recharge. Also it stops end recovery for 10secs. This would mean that it is quicker to get up and running at the start of a mish but if you have to resummon mid fight it is more risky applying the final upgrade as if on low end (which is normal when resummoning) you will risk losing all your toggles which for me at least is a lot, also you are less likely to be able to attack yourself or buff your pets with stuff after using it. This I believe would get rid of/reduce the wait at the start at the mish, make it less tedious to use but make it more inherently risky in combat.
Opinions please even if it is just to tell me how stupid I am