One R&D project I chose to do myself involved flashing each Moto G5 Plus firmware release in sequence, and recording the baseband and modem firmware versions, and when they changed. This is for the device named potter only.
So, here they are:
Original Factory ROM – 02.03.07.06R
Android 7.0 (2017-08-01 Security) – 13.20.07.21R
Android 7.0 (2017-11-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47R
Android 7.0 (2018-01-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47R
Android 7.0 (2018-03-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47R
Android 7.0 (2018-04-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47R – Build NPNS25.137-93-10
Android 7.0 (2018-06-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47.01u – Build NPNS25.137-93-14
Android 7.0 (2018-08-01 Security) – 37.46.07.47.01u – Build NPNS25.137-93-18
Android 8.1.0 (2019-09-01 Security) – 41.50.07.85R – Build OPS28.85-17
Android 8.1.0 (2019-10-01 Security) – 41.50.07.85R – Build OPS28.85-17-2
Modem and baseband versions are important in the AOSP community, because when you flash a third-party firmware or distribution, the baseband will no longer update. That can impact modem, radio, and reception performance of the device as important radio fixes (in addition to baseband-level security fixes) won’t get incorporated.
It would really, really be nice if we created something akin to the traditional automatic Linux firmware update payloads to-date, so that these updates could be checked, and flashed, independent of the Android update process.