Thanks! Just tried your suggestion.
Here's the sole event in this new composition, triggered by pressing the Streichfett's rightmost memory button, with the bank selector set to "C." All is as expected. Event viewer shows:
[Track,HMSF,MBT,CH]; Kind =Patch; Data = Normal, 11.
I've looked at the files that SONAR writes when saving as .mid's, and Streichfett program changes appear to be transmitted the same way (no guarantee, of course; I wish there were an easier and more reliable way of monitoring/tweaking raw MIDI here).
I must be doing something wrong with the Streichfett. But thanks for your suggestion! I will report back if I find a solution.