Emma, it's because those in the commercial side of things run the airline for money not safety. It's been put to them before but they won't risk a passenger not being able to buy a ticket because he couldn't find the flight number after flight ops had it changed. Apparently there is marketing value in a flight number. Eg EK1.
The solution offered was adding suffix "A" to the callsign which procedure is still in use as recently as less than two weeks ago when I heard it done. If not, the only other option is to stay awake and pay attention which does seem to be a problem as 1962 has pointed out.
As for type notification, I believe this has to do with approach speed awareness for ATCOs. Type is on the flight plan but presumably they don't have time to dig on the APP freq. Different SOPs for different countries and the pathetic shambles of a CCI and AOI doesn't help knowing when to say or not say it. Doesn't seem to make a difference here anyway as EK adjust speed when they feel like it without advising.