1998 PCM reputation

I've been wanting to get my spark tables optimized for awhile now. Not confident on the street due to knock sensors relocated to side of the block and not clear which logging math could interpolate MBT. A friend took his '02 Z06 to a tuner in Jacksonville FL to tune his new 468 LS7 on a load balanced dyno. He was real impressed with the tuner and recommended him to me. I contacted the tuner to verify he uses a loaded dyno to find MBT and he said he uses this type of dyno for steady state tuning... didn't say whether he used Greg's spark hook method. But, he advises he stopped tuning 98 F/Y-bodies "due to an overwhelming number of issues time and time again" and "he'd be happy tune tune the car on a 00+ PCM or Holley". I inquired on a HPT FB group and two others chimed in that they're scared of bricking them as well. "Some tuners may do them if they don't know what they are getting themselves into".

I'm not switching to a 0411 or an aftermarket PCM. Am I SOL in trying to optimize the spark tables?