I'm afraid it only transmits in response to commands from the MCP, as it was the only two-way remote option available for it... and the the MCP only comes to life when you use it, so there would be nobody to listen to unsolicited status transmissions from the Beomaster.
The later models broadcast the status messages every now and then and after every status change, as there were remotes such as Beolink 7000 that could be showing the status continuously.
But, if you don't find anything else wrong with it, there's no particular reason why the IR transmission wouldn't work. MCP5000s don't usually fetch much money so it won't be a huge investment just to try.
Receivers of this kind are sometimes sold as "defective" only because the seller didn't know how to use it!